Andromeda's Skye: 03 The Sky Comes Down
by natsora
Summary: It took a miracle to get Evfra's and Ryder's schedule to match up. Of course, disaster has to strike. Shore leave on Havarl is rudely interrupted when Old Pelavv explodes in the middle of a rather steamy situation. The Leader of the Resistance and the Pathfinder never rest, not even during shore leave.
1. Shit Start to the Day

Chapter 1 - Shit Start to the Day

_Prompt fill for "Setting a Broken Bone" - Skye Ryder and Evfra for Naeviss_

"Hey," Ryder said, her voice heavy and husky in the best way possible. She rolled over onto her belly, propping herself up on her elbow as she smiled.

Evfra reached out and brushed against her blonde hair. It had grown out enough that it covered the scar, that traced the arc of her skull, and then some. "You're beautiful you know that?"

She chuckled. Her skin gleamed in the moonlit room. Freckles danced across her naked skin as she curled towards him. "I wasn't fishing for a compliment."

He snorted. She enjoyed his declarations if the broadening smile was any indication. A smile of his own curved his lips, an expression that seldom graced his face. After all, the leader of the Resistance couldn't exactly smile the kett to death. These tiny concessions were reserved for quiet moments with Ryder. He could admit it now, this remarkable woman from a galaxy 600 years away held his heart. Evfra had loved before but never this way, not since he stepped up as the Commander of the resistance effort. What had started as an alliance, a mutual desire to explore what the other could offer turned into something he never could possibily expect. Ryder was a safe harbour, a confidant, a partner.

"What's that look on your face?" she asked, an eyebrow arching. She looked at him like she had discovered some delicious morsel of food. "Are you thinking good thoughts of me?"

He laughed, short, sharp but genuine. "You'd know, wouldn't you?" he mock growled as he surged towards her, flipping her onto her back as he loomed over her, hands pressing into the soft mattress on either side of her head.

"I knew it!" She reached up and dragged him down for a kiss. Soft and tentative at first, so at odds with her personality but utterly designed to drive him wild. Pecks more than kisses, concentrating at the corners of his mouth. He growled, trying to capture her mouth with his own. But a stray hand traced a path over his cowl, scratching at it. Just like that, his attention turned downwards. Down, down, down. Heat pooled in his loins and he groaned. "You'll be the death of me, Ryder."

She smiled against his lips, amusement dancing in her eyes. "In the best possible ways," she purred.

* * *

Evfra's eyes snapped opened. Years of being at war with the kett taught him to be always ready. It didn't matter if he was on Havarl, where they were supposed to be safe, it didn't matter if he was sleeping in his own bed, not a room in the barracks, for the first time in months, battle honed instincts stood at the ready. He flipped the covers away and reached for the pistol in the drawer next to his bed.

Never mind, he's naked. Never mind, he's still sore in all the best possible ways. Never mind, he's had only just began to unwrap the man from the job. He rushed towards the door and stepped out into the night air. Noise of a smaller, lighter frame human rousing and stumbling through the dark apartment came from behind. Ryder was well capable of taking care of herself. She didn't need him hovering. She was the Pathfinder after all.

Standing out in the cold night air, he shivered slightly as he scanned the surroundings for what woke him. The ground shook. He frowned, his grip tightening on his pistol. A kett invasion? Why hadn't been the alarm raised?

"Earthquake?" Ryder asked as she strode out from his apartment. He blinked, that wasn't something he had considered. She wasn't standing naked like him, she had one of his night shirt on and a rifle in her hand.

Evfra shook his head. "Havarl is not tectonically active. At least not in daar Nilvaa."

"Resistance Leader de Tershaav is correct. Though I detect some minor seismic activity towards the north," SAM replied via Ryder's omni-tool.

As Ryder spoke to SAM, Evfra turned his attention to his neighbours as they rushed out to see if they were attacked. Everyone was a war veteran whether they were soldiers or not, a grim fact of angaras of an entire generation. He calmed them as best as he could while enduring many curious looks at his state of undress. Though it's common to share communal baths and shower facilities regardless of gender, it was far less common to find an angara running around butt naked trying to speak authoritatively. There were more than one thinly veiled question about mingling bio-electricity with a human. Those were shot down with a glare, but the amusement lingered.

"Evfra, the scientists back at the landing zone detected seismic activity over at Old Pelavv," Ryder said as she strode up to him. "We should check it out."

She glanced at the latest enquirer about their night time activities. Her olive eyes took in the scene and understood instantly. He was tempted to use the pistol on the latest noisy asshole to spare her the questions but before he could act, she glanced over his shoulder and waved. "Sahuna!"

If Evfra could on the spot as Jaal's true mother walked over, he would have. Her eyes raked over his naked form once and she carefully re-arranged her face into one of neutrality. He straightened despite wanting to just slink away and die.

"Yes Ryder?" she asked. "You felt the rumble, didn't you?"

Ryder nodded. "Yes, me and Evfra are about to go check it. I think this man here needs your assistance."

The angara, one of his many neighbours but Evfra never lived on Havarl long enough to remember their names, opened his mouth, a question hanging off his lips. But Sahuna took one look at the situation and understood. "Gamal, come with me. I have someone to introduce to you."

Gamal blinked and dumbly got led away by the Ama Darav Matriarch.

"Evfra," Ryder called, as she headed back into his apartment. "Come on, let's go. I'd rather you not flaunt your naked form like this. I don't like sharing."

Just like that the irritation that was building across his shoulder eased instantly. He snorted and followed.

* * *

Evfra stared at the sight before him. Old Pelavv had collapsed. The structures that remained after Ryder rooted out the Roekaar entrenched there had half crumpled into the ground. Reconstruction work was going on to restore the daar when the collapse happened. But now maybe it was better to start again elsewhere. Perhaps the land was cursed.

Jaw tight, he watched as the troops unfurled lengths of hose to fight the fire. A hidden cache of explosives had apparently went off, triggering the collapse. Thankfully this happened in the night and not while the work was going on where more might be trapped under the collapse.

His gaze drifted over to Ryder. She was scanning the environment, planting hi-vis flags to mark where it was safe to walk on, conferring with SAM as she did so. He sighed. It was incredibly difficult for their leave to match up without some disaster cropping up to derail their plans. This one was months in the planning and now just two days in, a whole daar had collapsed.

"I can hear you sighing from here," Ryder said without turning. She glanced at him and offered him a smile. "Come on big guy, let's make you useful."

He walked over and took the flags from her. "I'm already useful. I've co-ordinated the task force. And look," he pointed, "they are working flawlessly."

She rolled her eyes at him. "Be more helpful then."

They worked. Side by side, she scanned and held out a hand. He'd thrust a flag into her waiting hand. The flags linked up to the network, updating a map back in the command post. It also formed a cordon to keep people off the danger zones. He kept a keen eye on the work, issuing instructions when needed but the people were well trained albeit inexperienced with handling a collapse of this nature. As they worked their way around the perimeter, one of his soldiers approached, flagging them down.

"Evfra, Pathfinder," Damia greeted as she jogged over. Her leathers were soot coated black from the fires they were fighting to put out.

"Report."

"The fire in the northeast is under the control and the fire in the west has been put out. But survivors reported a handful of their colleagues were still missing," Damia said, gesturing towards a group huddled under blankets, sticking close to one of the portable sun lamps they had set up.

"Ancestors," he cursed under his breath before turning his attention back to Damia. "Do you have the name list?"

She grimaced. "There were a few who opted to sleep on site rather than returning home, against regulations, saving themselves the commute. They were bedding down in the lower levels of the western structure."

Damia's eyes darted over to Ryder who had just finished up scanning the immediate area and was approaching. "Do you need me to go scan for survivors? SAM can tell if the ground is stable enough for us."

Damia looked at him as if waiting for instructions. Evfra sighed. "Gather a team, keep it small." She nodded gratefully and headed off. He turned back to Ryder, rubbing at the ridge of his brow. "Sorry."

Ryder blinked. "What for?"

"This wasn't supposed to turn into work," Evfra growled, his voice strained.

She laughed, it's a soft huffing sound, but it warmed his chest. "It's just like you to want things to go perfectly. Well, reality does work that way and it's fine, you know? Much as I prefer for this to not happen, I'm glad we're here to help. SAM can do a lot of good. Besides it's just going inside some unstable structure that has a danger of falling in on me and the others. What's not to love?"

Evfra frowned, reaching out to hold her arm. "You're not helping."

"I know," she snorted, pulling him along. "Come on, I'll go get some supplies, and I'll head out with the team."

His mouth grew pinched as his grip tightened, and he planted his feet. She sighed when she was tugged to a halt. Turning to properly face him, she reached up to cup his face.

It took him two days to shed the hard shell of the Resistance Leader, to reveal his true self and properly enjoy this time of rest with Ryder. And now he found it difficult pulling the persona back on. Caught between two states, he remained stiff. Ryder punched him in the arm. It actually hurt but it helped. He took a deep breath to master himself, shoving his disappointment and worry aside. "Promise me you'll be careful."

Ryder smiled. "SAM," she called out. "Could you share my vitals with Evfra?"

"With his permission, I can access his global tool and keep the transmission live for the duration of the mission."

"Yes, please do," Evfra couldn't say fast enough.

Within mere seconds, he felt a buzz on his ushataliin. He accepted it and saw a graphic display of Ryder's vitals. Her pulse, breathing rate, blood pressure and body temperature were all in the optimum range, helpfully highlighted in green.

"Does that help?" she asked.

He smiled, a slight pulling back of the mask, a small one in the face of the mission ahead. "Yes, thank you."

She chuckled and headed off.

* * *

"Send in all the personnel you can spare," Evfra said.

"Understood, they will be with you within the hour."

He sighed and terminated the connection. The fires in the northeast were still raging but thankfully it wasn't spreading. Still, he didn't like how close they were to the section Ryder and her team of four had entered. To watch them venture underground, the ground swallowing them up and not being able to follow made him antsy. He knew how capable Ryder was, she had killed the Archon, and he had watched her survived the impossible. This was just a simple search and rescue. It wasn't as if she was venturing into the heart of a kett base alone.

He growled wordlessly at himself. _Stop worrying._ It was a futile gesture. Now that he had stripped off the mask, he found it ill-fitting to put it on again. This was yet another way Ryder had changed him. It took Ryder getting badly hurt for both of them to realise that their relationship had gone beyond mere stress relief. Even then, their work had to come first. They talked via vid-call most of time. It was rare she found time to surprise him with a visit. Somehow in between all that, she had wrought a fundamental change in him. Waking up parts of himself he had long forgotten.

Glancing at his omni-tool, he could reassure himself everything was fine. Ryder's pulse was elevated, breathing rate raised but that's normal for anyone on a dangerous mission. He forced himself to look away, maybe having access to her vitals was a bad idea. Time and time again, he found himself looking back at it when he had a moment of rest. It's like things would go wrong, if he didn't kept an eye on it

"Ev—," a voice crackled through his ushataliin. "—fra."

Frowning, he ran the transmission through some algorithms to clear up the interference. The static faded, and Ryder's voice came through.

"Evfra, come in. Fuck, do you think the signal can penetrate the rock?"

"We should still be in range."

"He is going to throw a fit if I didn't report in before we head down."

"I'm receiving you and all your complaints loud and clear," Evfra snapped.

"Oh fuck, he heard me," Ryder hissed.

He was sure he caught sniggering in the background. But instead of addressing it, he cleared his throat and said, "So what is this about? Have you located the survivors?"

"No, we haven't but the cave in is more extensive than we had initially expected. SAM says the ground is stable so far so we'll keep going. The collapse has revealed some caves underneath the daar. They are all dead ends so far."

"Caves?" There were no known caves below Old Pelavv as far as he knew.

"Yup, that's what Damia and the others say too," Ryder cut in. "So the rocks might interfere with the signal. Don't be surprised if comms gets cut and well, my vitals will go too."

Evfra grunted. He didn't like the sound of this, but he understood the logic behind it. "I appreciate the report."

"All right, over and—"

"Wait, I'm not done," he snapped as he started pacing. The sound of a couple of rovers approaching caught his attention. The reinforcements were here. He had to go. "Three hours, if you're not out in three hours I'm sending a team after you."

"Got it, boss. Three hours, you heard him," Ryder acknowledged.

"And Ryder," he added. "Watch yourself."

There was a pause, silence filled only by the crunch of grit under boots as her breath puffed in and out. "I will," she whispered before the connection was terminated.

These words were only meant for him and he cherished them. He took a deep breath and fought the urge to check her vitals again. Instead, he turned to meet the commander of his reinforcements and dragged on the mask again.

* * *

Sweat beaded across Evfra's forehead. The survivors' condition were assessed onsite and were found to be mostly unharmed, but to be sure, they were being transported to the nearest medical centre. The sun was rising, peaking through the dense Havarl jungle. The night fauna retreated to their dens, bio-luminous mushrooms grew dull under the chill morning air. Condensation pulled the blue-green heavy leaves of their native trees low. Songbirds called and sang to greet the dawn of a new day.

He straightened and felt his back protesting against the abuse he had put it through. Checking on the time, it was nearing the 90 minutes mark. If Ryder and her team were to turn back, this was when they would do so. That also meant this was as far and deep as they were from safety. Ryder's vitals had been cutting in and out for a while now. The signal was valiantly trying to come through layers of pre-fab material, ground and ancestors knew what to get to him. Before he could think better of it, he quickly typed up a message, with luck it would make it through before the signal dropped completely.

His finger hovered over the screen after the message zoomed off. His breath hitched, his chest tightened as he watched Ryder's vitals spiked, colouring the screen entirely in red. Pulse and blood pressure raised, breathing rate quick, even her body temperature was elevated. Then, it cut out.

Evfra waited and waited. The signal never came back again.

* * *

Ryder groaned. Bits and pieces of rock were still settling around her. Her head throbbed in time to her pulse, pounding hard and fast against her temples. "What the fuck?" she cursed.

Everything was dark, a black utterly impenetrable by her eyes. She had her eyes opened, or not? Stopping short of actually poking herself in the eyes, she settled for triggering her light mod on her armour. A tight beam of light pierced the void. She squeezed her eyes shut, wincing as her eyes adjusted.

"Sound off," she called. Silence greeted her command. "Shit."

They were scanning and moving slowly just minutes before. The tilted structure made for difficult terrain because one false step, they could fall.

And well, they did. _Why didn't SAM warn me?_

But not before they found unexploded charges. Duds thankfully. While Damia and the others didn't know what to make of the unmarked explosives, Ryder had a sinking feeling about them. The explosives didn't looked like they had been left unattended for months, these were more likely deliberately placed and got displaced by the collapse. The collapse was orchestrated. But she kept her suspicions to herself. Their goal to find and rescue the remaining survivors hadn't changed. But what if they were the ones who planted the explosives?

Well that went out the door when the floor opened up under them. "SAM, what the fuck?" Why wasn't there any warning?"

"The floor should have held," SAM replied, they sounded confused.

"Is there something disrupting your ability to analyse?"

SAM paused, unsure of themselves. "I will run a diagnostic."

"Before you do that," shaking her head, she turned her attention to the immediate problem, "how long was I out?"

"No more than a couple of minutes," came the answer. "I detect no serious injuries."

"Any minor ones I need to know about?"

"There is a contusion developing across your back from the fall, some scratches along your shoulder blades from the night before, some chaffing against your inner thighs—"

"All right, all right, SAM you made your point. No need to get tetchy when you got a bug in your software."

"It is not a bug," SAM muttered, but given how intertwined they were there was no way she couldn't hear it.

Ryder let it go. She stood, dusting the stray bits of rock and dirt from her armour. Looking up, she could still make out where the pre-fab flooring failed them if she cast her light up. "I could try jumping up with my jump jets."

"I'll not advise that, Pathfinder."

"My biotics?"

"The structure is too unstable after the collapse."

She sighed, "Spoil sport."

SAM was, unlike her, an adult and refrained from retorting. She kicked her busted helmet aside. It had done its job keeping her head from cracking open. Her armour had taken the brunt of the impact. Tapping her omni-tool, she prayed the signal was still strong enough to reached through. She needed to warn Evfra.

"Evfra, do you read?" Nothing but static came through. "Well that answers things."

"I could have told you that," SAM replied.

"Not when you can't figure out how you got fooled," she muttered.

She started navigating her way through the rubble, scanning for signs of the others, but dread was squeezing her chest. Explosives and then a collapse and fires, this were all ingredients of an attack. And here she was armed with nothing but her armour and biotics. Her back felt cold without someone watching it.

* * *

Ryder stiffened, raising a closed fist, signalling the others to stop, but Damia bumped into her back.

"Shit," she cursed. "Sorry. I didn't—"

Ryder whirled around and pressed a gloved palm over Damia's mouth. Eyes keen, ears pricked, she listened.

There! The telltale sound of boots against dirt. They were steady and even. She heaved a sigh of relief. It seemed whoever they were hadn't realised they weren't alone. But Ryder and the others weren't out of the woods.

Things were far worse than she had suspected. It didn't take her long to locate the others. Damia and the others had fallen into another chamber adjacent to hers. It took a little work, but she managed to find her way to them. Orsay had broken his ankle in the fall and Amae was tending to him. It wasn't quite what they had intended but Ryder was grateful they had a medic with them. Getting out of here would be easier said than done.

Orsay hobbled along as best he could with Amae's help while Ryder took point with Damia just slightly behind her. Dread made her mouth go dry and no amount of licking her lips was going to take the edge off. The further they walked, the less right things looked. The caves showed signs of use.

Orsay hissed, sweat beading across his forehead, his skin ashen. "Why are we stopping?"

Ryder glared at him. She kept forgetting they weren't all soldiers. None of them were even militia. Damia and Orsay were search and rescue while Amae was a medic.

The boots scuffed and came to a stop. Breath held, she motioned for them to take cover. Damia realised what was going on. Angara could see better in the dim light, much better than the shitty human eyes she was blessed with.

Damia gripped the back of her armour, pulling her back urgently. "Someone's coming," she whispered. Her voice sliced through by fear. "They're armed. I think the collapse isn't natural."

"No kidding," she muttered, her jaw tight, but she took hold of Damia's hand and squeezed. She hoped it was as assuring a gesture she wanted it to be. "Hide."

The boots shifted and headed in their direction. As far as she could tell, it was only one person. Ryder took a deep breath, one potential enemy she could deal with. A vague figure materialised through dim light ahead.

"Angara," Damia whispered.

Ryder nodded, she could make out an outline where the light hit the edges of the person's leather armour. She missed her rifle and pistol intensely. Her leather gloves creaked lightly as she clenched her fists.

As the angara turned, the light traced the length of a rifle. Evfra's people weren't armed, at least not those who were actively doing search and rescue. Eyes narrowed, she yearned to tug at her core, pulling her only defence to the fore, but flaring would give them away. With Orsay hurt, they wouldn't be able to escape once the alarm was raised. She had the element of surprise and fuck was she going to lean on it.

Her heart thudded against her chest so hard she wondered why the newcomer couldn't hear it. Waiting, breath trapped in her chest. Waiting, muscles tight and ready. Waiting, biotics buzzing under her skin.

Ryder judged the distance and burst out from cover. Her hands a solid blue as she threw a Stasis over the angara. As azure lights flashed across the small space they were cramped in, she could see the fear that filled the angara's eyes.

He wasn't wearing any uniform she recognised but still she didn't want to accidentally hurt anyone who didn't deserve it. His hands fought to raise his rifle as his eyes darted to take in the situation. Fear was rapidly replaced by anger and outrage.

"Vesagara!"

That decided it. Roekaar, just like she had suspected, just as she had feared. Ryder risked a look behind her. She was expecting shock and fear but all she found was sadness, a deep abiding grief at a people torn apart at the seams. Jaw tight, she turned back and sent the Roekaar smashing against the solid rock wall. He crumpled into a pile, unconscious and concussed.

"We have to go, now!"

* * *

Lungs burning, thighs screaming, Ryder herded them along. She held herself back, firing with the rifle she'd stole up.

"Go! The exit is straight ahead," she shouted, pulling up the barrier, keeping it solid. Bullet after bullet thudded into it, she winced, feeling each impact in her teeth. SAM had hacked into their system and the map if the Roekaar base was invaluable.

"What about you?" Damia shouted as she rushed past, holding her arm tight against her chest. Blue blood stained her leathers. Ryder couldn't help but feel the flush of guilt running up her face. She had been too slow yanking Damia into cover, too slow with her barrier, too slow killing Roekaar.

"Do not let them escape! Kill them!" the shouts came from the Roekaar troops firing upon them.

There was no time now, the exit was just ahead. They had been hiding and dodging for hours, but Orsay's injuries were taking a toll. It was inevitable the alarm went up. The Roekaar had not expected their hideout to be found. Rescuing any survivors, if there were survivors in the first place, was out of the question. The important thing was to get the intel back to Evfra.

"Go! I'll hold them back," she growled. "I'll follow right after!"

Amae panted as he took on most of Orsay's weight. He laboured to keep his partner up right and moving. Orsay's face was all grey now, hopefully the broken ankle wasn't too damage to heal properly.

Ryder's amp sent a spike of heat up her head, reminding her time was tight. And she couldn't keep the barrier up indefinitely. "Go!"

Damia didn't need her to shout again. She turned and pulled Orsay's arm over her shoulder. Ryder couldn't spare them a second glance, her focus was wholly on maintaining the barrier for as long as she could. Step by step, she fell back. The barrier was flickering and wavering. It was on its last legs. _She was._

But rather than letting it shatter, she gathered the last of her strength and sent a Push down the length of the tunnel. Crying out as a lightning bolt ran up her neck and into her head. Her vision flashed white and grew fuzzy at the edges. Staggering backwards, she stumbled to follow. The Roekaar were all thrown on their collectively asses, but not taking anything for granted, she forced her legs to corporate.

It was amazing she hadn't tripped with how unsteady her legs were. Shoving her way through a set of double doors, following a trail of blue angara blood, she prayed she hadn't sent the others ahead into resistance too much for them to handle. "Evfra's going to kill me," she growled through laboured breaths.

"The Roekaar are more likely to kill you first," SAM pointed out helpfully.

"Not now."

Beyond the doors was a large room with an elevator shaft dominating it. This was a holding area for supplies before they got hauled deeper into this underground Roekaar base. The shaft was wrapped in a transparent tube. Machinery whirled and hummed inside. The trail led into the shaft, and presumably a platform which was missing. Relief warred with worry. She had to believe that they had made it up.

All she needed now was time. Time for the platform to get back to her level. Time for her to recover her breath. Time—

"There she is!"

Ryder had but a moment's notice. She dove for cover. A flimsy excuse of a table turned on its side. Bullets punched holes into it like it's made of paper. "Fuck, fuck, fuck," she hissed.

Eyes darting, she scanned the room. There was only way in and out of the room and that wasn't the elevator wasn't here. Teeth gritted, jaws tight, she refused to roll over and die here. Then her eyes caught on something in the labels of the crates. She didn't recognise the Shelesh words, despite trying to learn. She just didn't have the time to sit down to study the language properly. But some symbols were universal. The jagged edged starburst sign meant one thing — explosive.

There was no time to waste. One last glance at the elevator shaft. The humming had stopped. The platform had reached wherever it was going. Pulling up her barrier again, gasping as pain rode her skull, she levelled the rifle not at the incoming Roekaar but at the crates. With the trigger depressed, heedless of how many bullets she fired into the cluster of explosive, she screamed her defiance.

The light came first, searing her retinas before she squeezed her eyes shut. Then, came the sound, earsplitting and head piecing, it filled her skull. The barrier shuddered and bowed under the pressure and she was thrown backwards. It flickered and died before the ground tilted at a sickening angle. A brand new hole was blown open and she was slipping towards it. No amount of scrambling or struggle helped.

For the second time in a single day, she fell.

* * *

Pain was what woke Ryder. Sharp and radiating, spiking and stabbing like needles lancing into flesh and bone. She opened her eyes only to close it again, the broken stone ceiling above her spun even as she laid on her back. Grey crept in at the edges of her vision as she tried to keep from puking. Despite the agony, there was an overriding sense of urgency to move, to go, to flee.

With a stifled groan, she peeled her eyes opened again. The ceiling had settled somewhat. There was a numbness, that she associated with medi-gel, running down her right arm. Taking a deep breath, she turned her head, half afraid of what she might find. Even the smallest motion of her neck turning, her head moving, waves of pain came crashing back. Whimpers escaped her clenched shut jaw.

When her vision no longer danced, she looked at her right arm. Her breath hitched. Unrecognisable, her arm was misshapen. The humerus was supposed to be straight, connecting upwards towards her shoulder and downwards towards her lower forearm. Passed the shattered pieces of her armour, under the torn under suit, she could see white bone puncturing through flesh and muscle. The sight made her sick and her gorge rose again.

She groaned as she squeezed her eyes shut.

"Pathfinder, please stay calm. I'm trying to manage your pain levels," SAM said, a calm and toneless voice in her ear.

Ryder almost wished he sounded as panicked as she felt. "I've got to move," she moaned as she tried to cradle her arm to her chest. But even turning her body woke a pain she didn't think she was capable of experiencing, not after what happened on Sansesyol. (See Irreplaceable)

"Please Pathfinder, there is a limit to how much pain I can block," SAM chided.

"But—" Pain overrode her mind when she tried again. The attempt was aborted when her lungs seized to function. It was all she could do, easing back against the hard rocks that formed her bed, as gently as possible to avoid jarring her arm. Her pulse throbbed wildly inside her skull as her vision flickered, threatening to cut out like a failed transmission.

"—finder." SAM's voice, normally loud, sounded far away.

Teeth biting down hard on her lips, she tried to swallow the cry ripping up her throat. Then a shot of coolness ran up her mangled arm, the sudden loss of pain felt her breathless. Eyes peeling open again to find her vision blurry with tears.

"Pathfinder, we have to work together if you're to get out of this alive."

"Yes," she managed to gasp in the end. Casting one more look at her arm before turning away. "I'll need to set my arm. I can't stay here," she gritted out through clenched teeth.

"I agree."

Ryder had no intention to lay down and die here. Gingerly, she got herself into a sitting position. What once took mere seconds before now took minutes. It left her sweat drenched blonde hair plastered against her brow. Leaning against the hard rock wall, feeling the sharp edges digging into her sore back. She didn't relish what she was about to do, but she wasn't going to half ass this. Reaching into the utility pocket strapped to her belt, she pulled her spare medi-gel packets and a roll of splint tape.

"I am not looking forward to doing this." That was an understatement. She hadn't started and her breath was already quick and shallow. Taking care to keep her suit's medical suite from deploying medi-gel immediately, she shoved fresh packs into her suit. She'd need it _after_ she had set her arm.

At the back of her mind she had a clock ticking loudly, reminding her how much time she was wasting sitting here. Her jaw ached at how tightly she was already clenching it. It was only a matter of time before Roekaar came. She wagered her good arm she had less time than she really needed.

"Ready?" Ryder asked. The question was meant more for herself than SAM really.

"Yes, Pathfinder."

"Ok, ok," heat rushed from her head, making her lightheaded before she even began. "On three."

"Yes, Pathfinder," SAM replied again, infinitely patient and calm.

It was infuriating.

"One." Her heart lurched as she wrapped her left hand over the wrist of the broken one.

"Two." Her biotics leapt to her call, wrapping her broken arm in swirls of blue.

"Three." Ryder pulled her arm straight with a yank.

She screamed. There was no masking it. Tears streamed down her face. A sick crunching and grinding sensation shot across her entire arm as the broken bone retracted and shifted back into position. Her vision grew black at the edges as her eyes fluttered shut.

"SAM, SAM, SAM." A mantra she repeated in her head as her eyes rolled back into her head. The pain blanking out all other thoughts.

A jolt was delivered through to her head and her eyes snapped opened. Her pulse thundered in irregular beats against her chest. She gasped. There was no time to relax, she had to splint her arm and get her ass moving.

Biotics that normally swirled lazily around her skin leapt and jumped like static. With a grunt, she wrapped her arm in a tight Stasis, keeping still and in place. She tore lengths of the splint tape with her teeth and used the broken pieces of armour to stabilise the bone before wrapping the tape around it.

"SAM," she begged, "the medi-gel."

Her good arm was shaking and trembling, her biotics frayed and flickering, even her vision was tunnelling. She could feel the needle stabbing into her thigh, injecting medi-gel straight into her bloodstream. She groaned, bracing herself against the ground as she let her biotics go. Her broken arm fell limply by her side. The medi-gel countered most of her pain, leaving her dizzy, sick and faint.

Ryder gritted her teeth and forced herself to stand. Her legs were wobbly but they held her weight.

"Pathfinder, your blood pressure is dangerously low," SAM cautioned.

"Can't stay."

Ignoring SAM, she staggered forward. It wasn't safe to stay, her blood pressure be damned. Her armour's light mod casting a shaky beam of light ahead of her. If she was going to stay alive, she had to keep one step ahead of the Roekaar.

The tunnel split and split again, Ryder had no idea where she was going anymore. Hopefully, SAM was keeping tabs. They were the one with the map after all. She couldn't say how much distance she covered. Her arm was a throbbing mess that seared with agony. She tasted blood on her tongue, her lip chewed and bitten through as she laboured on. One foot in front of the other, good hand braced against the wall.

She stumbled through another set of doors. Hand slipping and missing her support as her knee buckled.

"Shit."

Ryder braced herself, twisting to keep her bad arm out of the way, allowing her good shoulder to take the brunt of the impact. Sheer fire erupted across her body as the ground surged up and plunged her into total darkness.


	2. Damsal in Distress

Chapter 2 - Damsal In Distress

_Prompt fill for "Surrender" - Skye Ryder and Evfra for wickedwitchofthewilds_

Evfra stared at the screen. His knuckles ached, the skin across his hand broken and raw. His table had suffered the brunt of his frustration, fear and guilt. How did things go so wrong, so quickly?

"Give yourself up," the angara growled as she paced across the vid. "We have the human Pathfinder, Ryder."

The vid cut to show a shaky body cam footage of an explosion. Ryder was running ahead, her white and blue Initiative armour clearly marked her out. Gunfire peppered the background, blowing out the audio. Evfra winced at every one that impacted against her barrier. The shimmering blue shield fell and bullets slammed into her armour. She pitched forward, falling heavily, even then she twisted to fire back at her attacker. Her visor had shattered. Her gaze was fierce and hard through the broken shards that held on. Though her lips curled in defiance, she was overwhelmed. An arm whipped out and ripped her helmet off before smashing into her jaw.

Evfra jerked as if he could reach into the screen to defend Ryder. Anger burst out of his mouth in a wordless growl as he smashed his hand into the table again.

Taavos flinched but stayed where he was. Qivra, the Commander of Havarl's garrison forces, had no such compunction. "Enough," she growled, pausing the vid.

It froze with Ryder's face half twisted in pain, blood flowed from her nose. Evfra yanked his eyes away and glared at Qivra. She was not part of the Resistance and thus not under his command. It was an odd situation he had found himself in, so used to commanding, so used to giving orders and taking charge. But having Qivra's iron will to steady him was what he needed, his heart ached with a pain he couldn't attribute merely to worry. He had a bad feeling about this.

"Taavos," Evfra turned his attention to the former Roekaar turned Resistance soldier. "Do you recognise her?"

The soldier reached out and scrubbed the playhead forward to the bit where the Roekaar in question made her demands. "Come to the nav-point, give yourself up to us. We will spare the Pathfinder. You have 12 hours."

He nodded. "Avrek, she and a portion of the Roekaar broke off from Akkusul's leadership after what happened at Old Pelavv. She heads a more violent splinter cell of the Roekaar. And she's lying."

Qivra's brow ridge rose and directed a questioning look at him.

"They are Roekaar, they won't let the Pathfinder go. She will be made an example of. This is just a trap."

Evfra grunted, he figured as much. A flash of Ryder's cocky's smile flickered at the back of his mind and his brow tightened. He knew things went horribly wrong when Ryder's vitals spiked. The dread grew and grew even as the situation at Old Pelavv got under control. The three hour deadline came and went without a crackle of static from his ushataliin. The display that was supposed to show him Ryder's vitals remained dark red with the word "vitals offline" plastered across it. The last time Ryder was late, she almost died.

Despite the turmoil churning in his chest, the mask of the Resistance Leader settled back tighter in the face of fear. He held the rescue and fire fighting operation together until Qivra and her people got to the scene. She ordered him to rest, pointing out he was on duty for the better part of 15 hours with barely any rest. Knowing good advice when he heard it, he took himself out of the hastily set up command post. Stepping through a field of broken hopes, he snorted and cleared his throat against the ashes still drifting in the wind. Boots crunching burnt vegetation as he watched the last of the firefighters packed their gear up to leave. His eyes took in the smouldering pile of rubble. What started with so much promise was now reduced to waste and ashes. The sun was all the way up now. There was no hiding the destruction the collapse had wrought.

He glanced at his ushataliin. Everything still offline. And Ryder was three whole hours past the deadline. "Where are you?" he whispered. His question was taken by the wind and scattered.

"Commander!"

He spun, his chest already aching with hope. It was a soldier he didn't recognise.

"Sir, Garrison Leader Qivra requests your presence."

Evfra was led to the temporary med-bay. Damia and two others were there. They were being treated by the medics and doctors. He pushed passed the soldier and asked, "Where's Ryder?"

Damia, who was sitting her chest exposed, her leathers cut and gathering around her lap, shifted only to be pushed back onto the bed by the doctor. "Don't move," the doctor instructed.

Evfra rounded to the other side of the bed to keep out of the way. The doctor was treating the ugly deep purple bruise spiderwebbed across Damia's chest, the result of a concussive round if he had ever seen one. "What happened?"

Qivra came up to Evfra's side, but his attention was focused on Damia and her story. The more she spoke, the colder the dread became as all his worst fears were confirmed.

* * *

"It's a fake," Dals declared. "A good one but fake all the same."

Evfra straightened, cautioning himself against false hope. "What do you mean? Explain."

Qivra had sent people to scout out the way Ryder and the others had went, but it was sealed. The exit Damia and her team used was bound to be heavily defended. That left Evfra with little recourse but to consider the offer.

The nav-point provided by the Roekaar blinked bright on the screen. It pointed to a cave below Old Pelavv. But without access to ground penetrating scanners, they only had old survey data to rely on. What had the Roekaar done to the caves since nobody had a clue. But how did they missed this, how did he missed this? His jaw tightened. The Roekaar stuck them within and without, undermining their efforts against the kett. And this time they had struck the one person who actually helped them triumphed against the Archon himself.

Evfra closed his eyes. The nav-point continued to blink behind his eyelids. How he longed to just agree and give himself up for Ryder, but he could already hear her berating him. She expected better from him.

Kiiran Dals, the scientist turned forensic analyst stationed at daar Pelavv, jabbed her finger at the video. "Notice they never had Avrek in the same shot as the Pathfinder? If they had her, they would have used her."

Qivra nodded. "That's a good point."

"What if they just got her tied up somewhere else?" Evfra pressed.

Dals nodded. "Ahhh but see this?" Her fingers flew across a couple of keys on the terminal. The screen switched to an extranet site. She tapped at a video seemingly at random. A body cam footage was playing and she jerked the playhead back and forth till she found the section she was looking for. "Watch."

Evfra's eyes narrowed. This was a video when the Resistance were taking down Roekaar cells. And these were all classified videos. Anger was starting to build in his chest, but he ground his teeth together. The motions of the camera, the way the Roekaar being pursued reacted looked familiar. "It is almost similar to the video Avrek sent us," he pointed out.

"It's identical, they have replaced the angara on screen with the Pathfinder."

"But how did they get her image fitted so perfectly?" Qivra pressed.

"There are plenty of images of the Pathfinder on the extranet. Press vid from the Nexus, even some of her combat vids can be found. It's a matter of software and a good VI to fit both together."

"So they don't have her," Qivra said, shooting him a look.

His chest relaxed a notch, knowing helped. "That doesn't change the fact she is still missing." He turned to look at Andraknor, "What's your take on all this?"

The Heskaarl unfolded his arms and studied the map. His fingers manipulated the digital image, enlarging and shrinking it. Eventually, he glanced at all assembled. "As much as it is alarming that the Pathfinder is missing, our priority is to take out this Roekaar cell. Avrek and her methods is far more destructive and dangerous. She had sent people to infiltrate the reconstruction efforts and bombed Old Pelevv. This is an act of war. Today it's a daar still under construction, tomorrow it might be one filled with children and families."

Evfra's jaw tightened. He understood where Andraknor was coming from. Just a mere year ago, he would have said the same. But now with how intimately he was intertwined with Ryder, he was no longer the same man. Again Ryder's angry hisses rang in his head. He should know better than to underestimate her. It's been 24 hours and there was still no sign of Ryder, not a single blip of her vitals on his ushataliin. His chest tightened uncomfortably.

"So what do we do?" he asked, turning his attention to things he could fix, not ones he couldn't.

* * *

"We will proceed with the exchange," Evfra's voice came through tinny and hollow from her omni-tool.

Ryder's jaw tightened.

"Do not hurt her," he said.

To someone who didn't know Evfra, they'd think he sounded cold, but she caught how tightly controlled his voice was. This was an Evfra lashing himself to professionalism like it's his only anchor keeping him from being dashed against the rocks in a storm. She knew from experience the more emotional he felt, the colder he got. And here his voice was ice.

Pain shot through her arm, prompting her to unclench her fist. She was tired and dirty, to make matters worse she had worked up a hell of an appetite. Sighing, she sank to the ground wishing she could close her eyes and wake up in her bed with Evfra wrapped around her. Alas, that was not to be.

"SAM," she croaked, licking her dry lips. "Where is this exchange supposed to be taking place?"

"I am working on it," SAM replied. I am trying to keep them from detecting my intrusion into their system."

Leaning her head back against the hard stone wall, she sighed and let SAM do their thing. The fall didn't do her any favours. She couldn't say how long she was out but her right arm had swell by the time she woke. Wherever she had found herself in, it was a secluded area of the base, unfinished stone caves that were repurposed for storage. Half stumbling, half walking SAM hacked into one with a door. There, she found much needed medical supplies. Then and only then did that she allow herself to rest.

A sling was quickly fashioned and she lashed her wounded limb against her chest. The pain nearly made her black out again. Sweat collecting on her chin, she took shuddering breath after breath to cling onto consciousness. In the end, she fell into an uneasy doze after injecting herself with the angara's version of medi-gel. It wasn't as effective on human physiology but it had to do. She needed her strength if she was going to get the fuck out of this hellhole.

Now awake and armed with the knowledge Evfra was going to fucking give himself up in exchange for her, she couldn't sit still. She refused to. With a trench so deep between her brow, it looked permanent. She growled wordlessly as she ripped a fresh packet of nutrient paste apart with her teeth. She squeezed the contents into her mouth as best she could one handed. A grimace twisting her mouth, she swallowed it quickly to keep her tongue from curling away in horror at the odd combination of sour, salty and bitter. She tossed the empty pack onto the floor to open a fresh one. With all the troubles she had, littering was the least of her worries.

"Anything?"

"One moment, please."

Never had she realised it was near impossible to use her omni-tool one handed, not without pain blotting out her senses. But Ryder was infinitely thankful it wasn't her dominant arm that's broken. She brought up the map SAM had siphoned. Fingers swiping across the map, zooming in and out as she tried to memorise as much of it as she could, knowing it would come into use sooner rather than later.

Patrols were increasing outside. She could hear boots clomping up and down, voices muttering and yelling as Roekaar rushed to carry out whatever orders they had. Thankfully SAM's hacking hadn't raise any alarm and with their limited access to the Roekaar's network hopefully she'll be able to stop whatever foolish plans Evfra had.

"I will submit," Evfra's voice echoed in her head. She squeezed her eyes shut.

"You stupid, stupid man," she whispered, her chest ached with worry. It must have matched the anxiety he was feeling. Still, it didn't make her feel any better. He was being stupid, pure and simple. "It's a fucking trap and he is going to walk right into it."

There was no way she was going to let him do that, especially when the Roekaar hadn't even captured her. Irritation and anger were fuel to keep her going, without them she could barely function. She sighed and concentrated on consuming as many nutrient paste packs she could stomach. But her biotic metabolism worked against her, and hunger gnawed against the insides of her stomach. The nutrient paste weren't enough, her body wasn't made to absorb them effectively.

She glared at her left hand which was resting on her knee. It shook and trembled. She clenched it, nails biting into her palm. "It's fine, it's all going to be fine." It was a blatant lie, not even she could believe it. She ripped the next pack with more force, the dehydration induced headache wasn't making things any easier.

"Pathfinder, I have got it," SAM reported.

Her head snapped up, alert and focused instantly. "Report."

"The exchange is taking place in two hours at this nav-point," SAM replied, the map flickered and zipped to the new location.

Ryder stared at it, the blinking arrow seared into her retinas. Two hours to get to the nav-point without detection. Two hours to get a weapon that she could fire with one good arm. Two hours to get all that done. She gritted her teeth and stood up, ignoring how her body wailed against moving. "All right, we have a situation to unfuck."

* * *

"I shouldn't have listened to you," Ryder growled, inching her way along a tight passageway.

"It is safer this way," SAM pointed out, their voice clipped and curt as if their patience too was at an end.

But what SAM lacked was the wild slamming of her heart against her ribs. Every second wasted on this meandering and fucking impossible route was another second things could — and who was she kidding — would go catastrophically wrong.

_Evfra, Evfra, Evfra._ His name echoed at the back of her head. The ticking of a clock rang loud in her mind.

"At the end of this passageway, you will find a grate leading upwards. Once through there, you will exit into the main corridor, five metres from the nav-point."

She grunted in acknowledgement. Her armour scrapping against the rock. It's a miracle she didn't get stuck midway and had to go back the way she came to shed pieces of her armour. To fit, she had to move sideways like a crab. One foot sliding in front of the other, her face turned a full 90 degrees. She only paused when pieces of rock scrapped against her broken arm. White spots danced in her vision, she breathed through the pain in sharp hitching gasps, praying she wouldn't faint.

"Fucking finally," she snarled as she pulled free from the passageway, cold sweat coated her face.

This route was safe because it was narrow. No angara could have fitted through the path she took. And it bypassed patrols that would surely detected her. She sighed as she looked at the grate. It was a full ten metres above her head. And there was no ladder in sight.

"Biotics, it is."

Her amp flared hot as she guided herself upwards. The throbbing behind her eyes intensified the longer she held onto her biotics. "Just a little more," she growled through gritted teeth.

By the time Ryder was through the grate and couched behind a wall of crates, she lightheaded and woozy. Ripping into another nutrient pack, she swallowed the contents like it was water in a desert. Hand shaking, she drew the pistol she had stolen, eyes keen and casting about. With a little work, she shifted the crates so she'd be able to look between their seams.

The cave opened up to what looked like a shuttle bay. Shuttles stood inert in their berths, some were being resupplied, others were having a new paint job plastered on. She recognised some of them. They looked identical to the model Nexus outposts were assigned.

_Are they stolen? Or merely fenced off on Kadara?_

Ryder filed the information to the back of her mind, it's another thing to chase down when she got the hell out of here. But one thing was sure, despite Akkusul being ousted from the radical angara group, the Roekaar's hate for all Nexus species still burnt strong.

"Kneel!" a voice rang out.

A female angara armoured in all black caught her attention. Ryder cursed, the crates blocked most of her view of what's happening. The angara had a pistol drawn and pointed at a male angara before her. Her breath hitched. She would recognise that back from anywhere — Evfra.

Her finger twitched against the trigger. How she longed to rush out and grab Evfra, but she held still. It wouldn't do to be rash now.

"Avrek," Evfra called out. "You've got me. Where's Ryder? Let her go."

The black clad angara stepped towards Evfra, pistol gripped lightly against her side. "You vesagara fucker, you don't get to speak." The pistol flashed up and came down hard against his face.

Ryder's nostrils flared, biotics buzzing angrily in response. Evfra's head snapped back. Blue blood sprayed across the black armour. He fell to his knees. Avrek laughed. "You're a disgrace to all angaras."

Her heart thudded hard, but she forced herself to look away. Instead, she checked the map. Getting here was only half of the solution, the other half was to get them out of here. Going back the way she came would be impossible, Evfra wouldn't fit. That meant doing it the hard way.

"I need a distraction," she muttered.

The crates held nothing she could use. And suddenly she found herself wishing for another crate of explosives.

"I could take over their system," SAM offered. "But that means they will be alerted to my intrusion."

"Where's Ryder?" Evfra demanded, rising to his feet only to be clubbed in the head again. "You got me, let her go!"

Anger and white fury rose in her chest. Nobody treated him this way, nobody touched her man. "Do it!"

Ryder didn't wait. SAM would do what they were going to do. Blue flames leapt to her call. And she charged, breaking cover in the most spectacular way possible, scattering crates announcing her arrival. The pistol bucked in her hand as she took down Avrek's shields. An eye-searing blue lance sliced through the air, punching a hole into the Roekaar line. Alarms blared as the automated defence system turned on their owners. Bullets peppered the unprepared. Taking advantage of the chaos, she made straight for Evfra.

Ryder couldn't decide if she was angry or relieved. Furious at his stupidly noble sacrifice, but she also breathed a little easier knowing he fought by her side. In the end, she settled for amusement. Shock, surprise and relief flickered rapidly across his face. If their lives weren't hanging in the balance, she would have burst out in laughter. She snorted and charged again, grabbing him as she zoomed passed, rushing them out of the crossfire.

"Ryder!"

His grip tightened around her good wrist as his eyes met hers while they were hurtling thorough space. She took in his wounds with a flick of her eyes. A bloody cut ran down his cheek, matching the one he already had. Tension leaked from her shoulders as she realised he was relatively unharmed. But before she could speak, her biotics flickered and cut out at the wrong time. His hand shot out to steady her but her momentum was too strong. She landed heavily on her side, grunting at the impact. A yelp burst from her clenched teeth.

"Ryder!"

"Yes, yes," she hissed, her face ashen. "That's my name. I know how it sounds like."

Anger flashed across his face but not before he dragged her behind cover.

Bullets peppering the spot they occupied mere seconds before. Her back slammed against the barrier and she glared at him. Pain had frayed her temper, her anger building up to match his.

"What—" he growled, his attention split between the Roekaar and herself..

"No, fuck no. I get to speak first. What were you thinking? Did you have no intel? I wasn't even captured and you gave yourself up?" she snarled, good arm clutching the bad, shaking from a mixture of fury and agony.

Evfra eyed her critically. She knew how she must look. It was more than 24 hours since her mission went sideways. She had the ground opened up on her twice. Blown up once, albeit that was partly her fault, partly because she wouldn't have blown anything up if she wasn't being pursued. And to top it all off, broken her arm. She was a mess. Even then, she wasn't captured. Things got in the way like pain and hunger and some first aid, but she would make her escape eventually. That didn't mean she was so incompetent as to be _captured_. And she said as much.

"I know you're not captured," he hissed, pulling her pistol from her shaking hand. He popped up to fire off a couple of quick shots. "I was actually hoping you'd take advantage of this operation to escape. And not to come rescue me!"

Ryder blinked at him owlishly. "You knew?"

He glowered at her but his gaze remained gentle. She sighed. Twisting, she thrusted her arm out, unleashing a wave of blue energy. It dragged the Roekaar hidden behind cover up into the air. He fired, taking them down. They worked well together as a team despite their diminished state.

"What now?" she demanded when they got a breather.

Evfra wasn't a man who smiled often. She was one of the privileged few that had seen his smiles. She had learnt he had two types of smiles. One that was reserved for her, small and shy, barely there if she didn't look for it. Another was razor-edged and feral, all sharp teeth and it promised violence. It was this second smile that he levelled at her.

"Pathfinder has landed, I repeat the Pathfinder has landed," Evfra growled into his global tool.

Before Ryder could ask, Resistance soldiers burst in. Brother fought brother, sister attacked sister. They were all angara, they should all be united against the kett. But with the Milky Way species' arrival, it forced a rift within families, within the daar, among friends. Sometimes Ryder regreted how much change their arrival had wrought. Without them, this wouldn't have happened. The angara people would not have been splintered into a million broken shards, impossible to put back again.

She turned her attention to the business at hand. Even with reinforcements, they weren't home free. Pain lanced up her arm as she popped out of cover, flinging biotics at the Roekaar. It was beyond her ability right then to move and flank the enemy, but she could provide cover as the others forged ahead. Ignoring the electric burn that rode her nerves, she fought. With Evfra by her side, she was never more confident.

Avrek roared. "Pathfinder, you will end today!" The Roekaar renewed their fire.

Voices of pain filled the air as angara killed angara. She blinked angry tears away. This loss of life was such a fucking waste.

"Give up, Avrek!" Evfra called. "Nobody else has to die."

Avrek's answer was another hail of bullets. "The Roekaar do not give up! Kill one of us, another will take their place. All vesagara will leave or they die, starting with the Pathfinder!"

Despite Averk's defiance, bit by bit, step by step, the Resistance was pushing them back. Trapped between shuttles rendered useless in the battle and pinpoint precision gunfire aimed to disable rather than kill, the Roekaar had only two choices — turn tail and flee or stand, fight and die. They chose to stand with their leader.

"Don't throw your lives away! We can work together!" Ryder shouted, raising up to her feet, pulling her barrier tight around her.

Evfra yanked her back down when the first bullet slammed into her barrier. "What the fuck are you doing?"

Tears stood in her eyes as she threw a hand out, sending Roekaar floating helplessly in the air. "This is stupid, this is all stupid," she spat. "They don't need to die. Nobody need to die!"

His crystal blue eyes stared at her. In the middle of the battlefield where the slightest distraction determined life and death, he held her gaze. He grabbed her good shoulder, wincing when she grimaced at the contact, trying to offer comfort as the din of battle roared around them. "They don't need to," he paused, sighing heavily, grief filling his voice, "But it's impossible to reason with them. Not here, not now."

Avrek's people weren't like Akkusul's, filled with young angaras radicalised into an alternative school of thought and had resorted to violence. Hers were zealots. But that didn't make this battle any more meaningless, any more preventable.

"Pathfinder, I have lost the automated weapons," SAM reported.

Ryder forced herself to refocus. With the automated weapons out of play, it made getting out all the harder. Then it occured to her, if Evfra wasn't here to exchange himself for her, why was he here? Her eyes flashed towards Avrek, and the answer was plain.

"Do not force my hand," Avrek yelled, standing boldly from cover. Her black armour sparked bright yellow as bullets impacted her kinetic shields. "I have planned for just such an occasion. Retreat or die."

Evfra spoke into his comms. "Keep the pressure up, they have nowhere to go."

Ryder's jaw tightened. Her body protested at the sheer lengths she was pushing it, her arm throbbed, her head pounded. However, she couldn't bring herself to stop, if she could prevent one more futile death, it would have made it all worth it.

Then, a sniper rifle boomed. Avrek's head rocked backwards. Even as she fell, a smile graced her face. The small black object she had in her hand fell. Ryder gasped as she realised what it was, SAM's warning ringing in her ears.

Light came before the sound. A series of explosion bloomed across the roof. A noise was so loud it was made physical, slamming into her chest, jarring her heart, making it lurch wildly.

"No!" she shouted.

Her good arm thrusted outwards, she sent her will to shore up the crumpling roof.

"Direct your biotics here, Pathfinder," SAM said, instantly picking up on what she was trying to do. He highlighted an area of the roof. "If this part of the roof falls it will start a cascading effect, bringing the entire place down."

With a grunt, she re-directed her biotics. Her amp burnt hot, singeing her hair and probably burning her flesh but still she held on. She must.

"I can't hold this forever. Go!"

Evfra frowned, but his keen eye took in the situation and was quickly issuing orders. The Roekaar continued to pepper them with gunfire, they didn't care if they were going to be buried or not. Avrek, even in death, was keeping her promise. If the Resistance was to make it out before time ran out, someone had to lay down covering fire. He grabbed a rifle from a fallen fighter and reloaded.

"I'll cover you," he ordered his team. "Go!"

"But sir—"

If Ryder had breath, she would have laughed. Look how weel she kept the exact same promise to Damia.

"This is an order, I'll follow," he growled as he stood up to fire at the Roekaar.

Exhaling slowly, she fought to ignore the mounting pressure inside her head. Cries of pain rang out. Evfra was determined to see his people out first. She could do hold out for them. Her hand shook harder, her vision wavered in and out. "Just a little more."

Time ceased to have meaning. There was just the next moment, the next second. Her amp boiled under her skin, her biotics was stretched so thin, she could barely think.

"Ryder, we have to go."

She looked at Evfra, their eyes met. Blood mingling with sweat trickling down his face, his lips twisted in a grimace. Protective and proud, his eyes took on a strange sheen. In that moment, she felt it, a warmth to know Evfra was here with her.

Her biotics spluttered and flickered like a candle in the wind. Fear came flooding back. They had to go. But she couldn't run and keep her biotics up, not at the same time. "I… can't…" the words were forced through clenched teeth.

Evfra's eyes widened and closed the distance between them. He wrapped a gentle but firm arm around her waist, ready to pick her up in a firearm's carry. Resistance fighters were providing them firing cover as he concentrated on getting them out of here.

But as he approached, Ryder saw the dancing red dot of a sniper's laser sight. It was there and gone. For a split second she wondered if she was seeing things, exhaustion taking its toll. But it returned, moving across Evfra's chest towards his forehead.

"No," she gasped, head twisting to locate the sniper, but between trying to hold up the roof and her tunnelling vision, she could barely see clearly.

Surprise flared across Evfra's face when she lunged at him. The tendrils of her biotics shredding as she tacked him to the ground, leaving them exposed. A boom of a sniper's rifle. Pain tore through her shoulder. A gasp hissed through gritted teeth.

It was the final straw. The thread she been been unspooling from her core snapped. Her body gave out. A terrible groan rang out through the shuttle bay. It was collapsing.

"Ryder!" Evfra called, but his voice was so far away. His hands pressed against her shoulder and she barely had the strength to moan. "No, no… You can't do this."

The groan grew louder, like a giant crying in torment. "I'm sorry…" she rasped.

Evfra folded himself over her, lips pressed against her forehead as her eyes slid shut. Darkness descended upon them as he held her tight, wrapping his body over hers as the groans turned into an earsplitting crash.


	3. Rock and a Hard Place

Chapter 3 - Rock and a Hard Place

_Prompt fill for "Kidnapping" - Skye Ryder and Evfra for lylypuceonarchive_

Pain flashed like lightning behind her eyelids. White against black, jolts running across her body, lighting everything it touched on fire. Ryder groaned as she peeled her eyes open. A mix of gunk and dried blood had near glued her eyelids shut.

"Alive," she rasped as she took in her surroundings through blurry vision.

This wasn't what she had expected. At the end there, she remembered Evfra's arms around her, her life blood pouring from her shoulder, a bullet had ripped through armour and flesh. The roof was falling in and darkness descended. She did not expect to wake.

But here she was.

Instead of rock and stone surrounding her, she found cold steel against her back and the hum of a drive core filling her ears. Blinking, she forced herself to sit up only to find her limbs lashed to a chair. Motion woke the far away pain. She moaned, sagging back against the chair.

Shuddering breaths rocked her body. She gritted her teeth, attempting to master the pain. Tears leaked from the corners of her eyes as her head lolled. Her right arm looked broken again. The splint tape had came undone and someone had attempted to reset her arm _unsuccessfully_. Her chest piece had disappeared, her undersuit slashed open to access the bullet wound, and it looked crusted with medi-gel. Blood was still leaking sluggishly from the hole. Whoever treated her was stingy with medi-gel or they plain sucked at first aid.

"Not good," she sighed. "SAM, how's it looking?"

"Your humerus is broken."

"Yeah I can feel it," she hissed. "Anything else?"

"Low blood sugar, dehydration and a through and through bullet wound in your chest that achieved a statistical impossibility of missing your major veins."

"So I'm not going to bleed out then I take it?"

"It depends on how long you take to get proper medical attention, given the situation now, it will take you a while before hypovolemic shock is a concern."

"That's one good news then," she muttered, brow tightening as she tested her restraints. Even the tiniest movement left her gasping and shaking. It was no good. Before she could attempt biotics, a scream cut through her fog of pain. It's a voice she recognised but in a tone she had never heard before.

_Evfra!_

Chills ran down her spine as fear clawed at her chest, squeezing her labouring heart. Her head snapped up as she sought the source. Sounds of impact, flesh against flesh. Stubborn grunts punctuated every impact as if the first cry was a fluke. But Ryder knew better, Evfra was being stubborn and stoic. Worry and anxiety tightened twin nooses around her throat as each blow sounded harder and heavier than the last.

"Avrek might be dead, but you won't live long either!" a new voice snarled.

The voices were coming from behind her. Ryder panted, working up the courage to swing her chair around even if it's just to look.

"Kill me then, what are you waiting for? You obviously had the chance to do it before, why are we in a fucking shuttle now?" Evfra spat. "Ancestors, you're really useless. You lack the strength, you lack the conviction, you lack the resolve to even kill me."

"Do not test my patience!" A smack rang out and a muffled cry followed. "You're at my mercy now."

The blows went on and on. And Ryder's heart broke a little with each one. "SAM," she hissed. "How's my pain management doing?"

"At maximum capacity," came the reply via their private channel.

"Can you do anything more?"

"Pathfinder, do you require the definition of maximum?"

"This is not the time to get smart-mouth with me," she growled. Silence reigned. For a while, Ryder blinked, wondering if she had blacked out or something. "SAM?"

"There is something I can do," SAM said, his voice hesitant. "I can overload your implant, numbing you to pain for a short while but I can't maintain it for long."

Ryder took a long breath through her nose, air whistling through her nostrils as she exhaled. "All right, all right, that'll be our ace in the hole. Meanwhile, I assume you've transmitted our location to the Resistance or Cora or someone?"

"The shuttle is running dark, There isn't an outgoing signal I can piggyback on to reach a comm buoy. But I've been actively broadcasting a signal, hopefully I'll be able to hook onto a comm buoy soon."

Dark space. That's where there wasn't any comm buoy within easy reach. How far away were they from Havarl? How long was she out? Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes, trying to fight the rising tide of panic. The situation was far from ideal, but it's what she had to work with.

Evfra's grunts gave way to yelps, then to cries, and even then his voice grew hoarse. Not even someone as obstinate as he was could hold out forever. He was running out of strength. Ryder gathered herself, pulling together the frayed ends of her energy and will. The pieces she had left weren't much after two days without proper food, rest or medical attention, but it would have to do.

"Hey!" she shouted.

The sound of fists against unprotected flesh ceased instantly. Boots started to approach from behind. Teeth set against teeth, Ryder tried to rock her chair. She kept the motion small, enough to shift the chair from leg to leg, that was all the jotting she could tolerate, but it wasn't not enough to spin it around.

"Ahh the Pathfinder is awake," the voice said, footsteps circled around to face her.

It was only then she got a good look of the angara. Clad in a dull green leather armour, his skin ran a deep purple but what stood out was the dripping deep blue blood that coated the entire front of his leather. His knuckles were split and raw, but it was obvious the blood it wasn't his.

She gulped, questioning her decision to draw his attention now that it was done. The enemy didn't need to know how tired she was. Taking a breath, she forced a grin. "Evfra, you're still breathing?"

A rattling hiss of a grunt was her answer. Alive then. That's good enough for now. Survival was the baseline. That's how far they had fallen. She turned her attention to the angara who stood before her.

He was methodically wiping down his hands. The rag was stained a blue so deep it looked black. "So somehow we went from a cave in to a shuttle," she said. "How did that happened? It seems I've missed the best part."

The angara reached out and gripped her by her chin. His fingers pressed into her skin. "Vesagara do not get to speak."

Before she could flinch, he brought his fist down against her jaw. Her head whipped to the side and back again. She tasted blood. But the pain was no match to that of her broken arm. Blinking back tears, her tongue sought the cut inside her mouth.

The hum of the shuttle filled the space. It was the empty sound of a machine left unattended, laced with desperation and no small amount of fear.

"Looks like you're alone," Ryder pointed out. "Maybe you could let us hail our people and we can let you go? Work out a win-win deal for all of us."

Anger flashed across his eyes. Another punch, this one glanced against her brow. Red blood replaced the blue on his fists. A door behind her slid opened with a telltale hiss. She bit her tongue to keep from aggravated the situation despite how much she wanted to let her mouth run loose.

"Enough," the newcomer said. "Vamae, go wash up."

_Well, fuck, another one? How many of them are there in this shuttle?_

Vamae's eyes cut across to look at the newcomer. "No. I'm not done, Ravad."

"You are," Ravad growled, her voice harsh and sharp. "Go."

For a while, the pair glared at each other over Ryder. She held her breath and waited.

"Go make sure Rel is still on course. I didn't drag both of them just so you could torture them to death. I am not Avrek," Ravad instructed.

Vamae's lip curled. Disgust and grief etched on his stone planed countenance. "That much is clear." But he relented and left.

Ryder would have heaved a sigh of relief if she could but her nose was all clogged up with blood. Craning her neck, she tried to get a good look on Ravad. She seemed a lot more reasonable. "What are your plans for us?"

No answer. Fear took up residence in the void.

"Why have you kidnapped us?"

There was still no answer. Only Evfra's heavy breathing punctuated the silence. Ryder gave on trying to catch sight of Ravad and sagged against her bonds, wondering why Evfra wasn't speaking. Maybe he's unconscious, succumbing to the beating he had taken. Maybe Vamae had taken a stick to him and had bashed in his ribs and that's the rattling she had been hearing. There were too many possibilities and every single one was worse than what her mind conjured up previously.

Then, the scrapping of steel against steel scratched across her eardrums. Ryder winced. A solid thump of something hitting the back of her chair. She turned to find the back of Evfra's head lolling against her shoulder. Relief flooded her chest but she kept her guard up, eyes tracking Ravad who shifted in and out of her field of vision. The Roekaar seemed to be tidying the place up and eventually she stopped right in front of Ryder, her arms folded across her chest as if regarding a particularly troublesome problem.

Ryder met her eyes. Her strength draining, leaving only exhaustion in its wake. She couldn't find the energy to repeat her question.

Ravad spoke instead. "Avrek underestimated Evfra," the words tossed onto the ground like it spit she hawked up. "She thought he'll be a love sick fool, rushing in without a plan. Evfra is way more calculating than that. But in the end, he is still a fool."

The frown furrowing Ryder's brow deepened. Where was Ravad trying to go with all this? It's all rhetoric wasn't it? They got their targets, the Pathfinder and the leader of the Resistance, their goals were achieved twice over. Two for the price of fucking one.

Ravad sighed. "I don't care about any stupid ideals. I just want to survive now. You are both my bargaining chips and nothing more. I'd prefer you alive than not, but I don't exactly need you intact. So behave, maybe we'll all see the sunrise again." With that she spun on her heel and left.

Ryder sagged back against the chair, allowing all her limbs to relax as much as she was able to. Nothing didn't hurt, everything was screaming for her attention. She willed sleep to take her but an exhaled gasp came from behind her.

"Evfra, are you all right," she asked. The question sounded stupid the moment it left her lips.

Evfra spat, a glob of blue tinged saliva splat on the ground just next to her foot. "What the fuck did you think you're doing Ryder?" Anger didn't began to cover how he sounded.

She could feel tension rolling off him as he tried to take a good look at her. The angle was awkward but they made it worked. Her eyes took in his swollen and bruised face, blood trickling down one side where the skin was split. She's pretty sure there were worse injuries she couldn't see.

"I couldn't let you have all the fun," she retorted, raising to meet the challenge in his voice.

He growled, a wordless sound of frustration. "One person hurt is better than two."

"I have two barely functioning arms in the first place, so I'm sparing you some of that. Beside you were bored, it isn't a great party anyway."

"Woman," he gritted out, exasperation dripping from that single word.

"Save your breath, Evfra," she exahled, nuzzling her forehead against his.

He closed his eyes and just breathed, tension easing from him by a notch at a time. "I was afraid," he whispered. "I was so afraid."

It was so soft she could barely hear it. If the Roekaar bothered to leave any listening devices, it's unlikely they'd pick it up. She hummed in response. "Me too, me too."

* * *

"Ryder," SAM spoke via their private channel.

She jumped, eyes snapping open instantly. Half wondering if Vamae was back to finish the job. But the room remained silent and dark. Evfra breathed heavily, his breath hot against the side of her neck. Gingerly, she lifted her head, having fallen asleep with her head tilted back to lean against Evfra's back and him doing the same.

"What is it?" she asked.

"I'm managed to connect with a comm buoy. I estimate the Tempest will receive the message in an hour."

This ordeal had been too long and she just wanted it to be over. With rescue now in sight, she could hope once more.

"Assuming the Tempest was making their way to Havarl once you've sent your report. Rescue could be as quick as in ten hours."

"Ok, ten hours. That's quick isn't it?" she muttered to herself.

The door slid opened. Evfra jerked and groaned before checking himself. Tension corded his muscles. Ryder cursed. The way her chair was positioned, she couldn't see a single thing. Boots clomped, loud and menacing. "Let it be Ravad…" she muttered over and over.

"Hey!" Evfra called out. "Leave her alone!" The boots continued around him, circling towards her.

Anxiety rose as she tensed up in anticipation for a beating. Her neck and eyes straining to see who was coming.

It was Vamae.

"Shit."

And Vamae grinned in response. "Time to go, Pathfinder," he spat as he lifted his rifle and aimed it at her chest.

She stiffened.

"Stop! What are you doing?" Evfra rocked back and forth, twisting and fighting his restraints.

Ryder held herself still, scrapping at the dregs of her biotics. She had a couple of good blasts at the best. If this was it, she had to make it count. The restraints clicked and unclasped from her wrists and ankles. Try as she wanted to attack him, she could manage no more than a light tap at his jaw. It's a move that he sidestepped neatly, allowing her momentum to take her down to the floor.

She yelped, her arm and chest flashed with fire. Vamae chuckled. "Try that again, _Pathfinder_."

Teeth gritted, she fought to stand. Her father would turn over in his grave if he knew she was going to die lying down with her back exposed to the enemy. She screamed, putting pressure on her broken arm was impossible. her good arm worked better but was held back by the bullet wound that bled more and more with every attempt to get off the floor.

Vamae laughed.

"Leave her alone," Evfra roared.

It was only now, lying on the floor, snot and tears trailing down her face did she have a good look of Evfra. His face, a deep purple, anger and rage were the mask that covered the fear he felt. A low whine rang out. The restraint holding down one of his arms powered down. Muscles corded down the length of his neck as he tried to work his other arm free.

"Leave her alone!"

Startled, Vamae swung his rifle around. Ryder watched it happen in slow motion. His finger curling over the trigger. A scream lodged in her throat as she flung her biotics out. Evfra rose to his feet, a murderous growl curling his lips. The rifle bucked. Evfra jerked back as a bloom of deep blue erupted from his chest. Her biotics fizzled and died, slipping through her grasping fingers, failing her when she needed it the most.

"No!"

Jaw tight, she kicked out at Vamae. Taken by surprise, he fell. The rifle went clattering towards her. Ignoring the tearing at her shoulder, anger fuelling her, she made a grab for the rifle. Her good hand found the grip of the rifle first. Vamae lunged towards her. The rifle traced an arc in the air, the butt of the rifle planted against her chest, she fired. A single bullet sliced through the air, punching a hole through Vamae's forehead, spraying guts and blood everywhere. The kickback knocked the breath out of Ryder, leaving her gasping as black spots danced across her eyes.

She felt more than she saw hands dragging her across the blood slicked floor. Voices drifted in and out of her consciousness as tears streamed from her eyes uncontrollably.

_Evfra, Evfra, Evfra._

But she was Skye Ryder, she refused to curl up and die. It didn't matter if Evfra just got shot because of her. It didn't matter her heart ached so much she thought she was going to die. Her parents raised no fucking coward. Peeling her eyes open, she struggled with a fury only the dying could summon.

Ravad looked down at her. "Looks like you helped me cleaned up a mess," she said. "So let me do you a favour."

With a quick shove, Ryder's back slammed into something hard. Her eyes watered. But before she could catch her breath, Ravad tossed Evfra in after. His heavier bulk slammed into her, she cried out.

The Roekaar stood with one foot on the threshold, a grin on her lips.

As soon as she caught her breath, her fingers sought out the spot right between his neck and his cowl. She pressed tightly. _Please, please, please._ She begged for some higher power to hear her, any one of them would do at this point. Then, something throbbed against her fingers. It's weak and unsteady but it's there. Relief washed over her like a sip of water under Elaaden's scorching sun. Evfra was still alive. She wrapped her good arm around Evfra, holding him closer.

"What are you doing?" Ryder gasped.

"I know your little computer friend must have tapped into that comm buoy we passed a little while back," Ravad said. "I want to survive. You are just too hot for me."

Ryder blinked stupidly, the pounding in her head made it impossible to comprehend what's going on.

"I'm dropping both of you off," Ravad went on. "Vamae failed to kill Evfra. He managed to fuck up shooting a man at point blank range and losing to a human with one functional arm." She snorted, it's a noise filled with so much disgust at Vamae's sheer incompetency. Ravad wouldn't even spare her comrade some dignity in death. "So yeah, you did me a favour."

Ryder braced herself against a protruding piece of metal. She blinked, fighting her disorientation. It was a seat. Feet kicked and pushing, she dragged herself into a sitting position, Evfra draped across her lap. This wasn't the shuttle anymore, the space was too small and cramped. Two metal seats were welded to walls dotted with controls. It looked familiar, in fact it looked just like Peebee's room.

It's an escape pod.

Ravad took a step back, both her feet planted firmly outside the pod. She hit a button and the door started closing. "I believe there is enough air for 12 hours. Hopefully your people pick you up before Evfra bleed out. If you survive, remember I let you go."

Before Ryder could find the words, the door sealed shut. And the pod was ejected, sending her world spinning and tumbling.

* * *

Awareness returned in ebbs and flows. Evfra groaned and forced his eyes open only for them to sag again. His heart laboured inside his chest, his lungs fought valiantly for every bit of oxygen.

"Shhh…" a gentle voice cooed at him but the voice sounded exhausted. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry."

Through his blurry vision, he saw a familiar face, one he thought he had lost when the bullet hit him, one he thought he would never wake to again. "Hey," he managed to rasp through his dry and cracked lips.

Ryder moved away, grimacing as she used her left hand to reposition a sun lamp closer to him.

Evfra would deny it if anyone asked, but a whimper escaped his tight control when Ryder disappeared from his vision.

She hurried back, couching next to him. "I'm here, I'm here," her voice assured him, hand brushing his face as his vision dimmed, his eyes fluttered.

He grunted, refusing to give up his ability to look upon Ryder. Their eyes met. His pain glazed, hers exhausted and drained but underneath it ran a will and determination the strength of a burning star. That was his Ryder, his Skye.

"None of that Evfra," she leaned her forehead onto his.

Even the slight contact was enough to pour energy into his limbs. He grunted and straightened in the seat he was strapped in. Ryder returned to her task, ripping a pack of Resistance issued medi-gel with her teeth. He gasped as a coolness spread across his chest when she injected the contents of the single use syringe into him. The pain receded and he could think more clearly. But it didn't make breathing any easier, he could taste blood at the back of his throat.

Ryder's right arm, awkwardly strapped to her side, under suit ripped so badly it was barely clinging to her torso. The bullet that punched through her shoulder was bleeding freely. A disturbingly dark red streak ran down her chest.

"You should have use that yourself," he said, a trench formed between his brow. She was always taking care of others, putting herself in harm's way. As a leader, their lives weighed differently as much as he didn't want to admit it. She was the Pathfinder, she had to put herself first, over the common soldiers, even the leader of the Resistance.

Ryder glared at him without heat but looked away quickly. Bracing herself against the wall, she slumped onto the floor, too tired to move. Her pale human skin stained a deep blue. His eyes widened in alarm, it's probably all his.

"SAM," she called out, triggering her omni-tool's scanner on her broken arm. "How's it looking?"

The orange beam adjusted to its awkward angle to sweep over him. They waited. SAM remained silent. She frowned. "SAM?"

"I'm sorry Pathfinder," SAM replied. "I'm processing the data. The bleeding in Resistance Leader de Tershaav's chest has slowed but…"

"It's not enough," Ryder finished the sentence, her eyes slid to the floor, defeated.

She took a deep breath and Evfra saw the disappointment shoved aside, as she drew strength from somewhere deep within. Her shoulders set, chin raised high to meet the challenge. In that moment, Evfra's chest filled with a pride so great, he was amazed his ribs hadn't fracture from it.

This was Skye Ryder, Pathfinder and the Archon Slayer. But most importantly, she was his safe harbour. Even as he could feel his lungs slowly but surely fill with blood, choking out much needed oxygen, he was glad to be here with her, in this last moments. It was enough Ryder would survive.

"What about the Tempest, how far out are they?" she asked.

"Four hours away, but it would take time to locate the escape pod. The Tempest is tracking your location based on your implant but it's affecting how much bandwidth I can manage your pain," SAM replied.

She nodded. "I know. That's fine, we can manage it when they get near."

His eyes darted worriedly over her wounds, if SAM was managing her pain levels to the maximum of their bandwidth, Ryder was in considerably more pain than he had realised. But before he could speak, SAM went on, "The Tempest can hone in on our location of the beacon if it's working. The comm array's signal range is much narrower."

"What happened to the beacon?" he asked, marshalling his strength to help out.

Ryder sighed and shrugged. "You would do better trying to fix this. I can't make heads or tail of it."

With a grimace, she pushed herself to her feet, shuffling around the tight space to show him the beacon or what's left of it.

With one brow ridge raised, he asked "Did you smash it up in frustration?"

She rolled her eyes. "I may be incompetent with tech, but I'm not stupid or suicidal. And I've tried putting it back together but you…"

He snorted, ignoring the way she looked at him, fear and dread filling her eyes. "Now you know how I felt when you just dropped out of contact."

Annoyance flared instantly. "Hey, that wasn't by choice."

"What about taking that bullet for me?" He held her gaze. Relief warred with anger. She lived, but it didn't soothe the ache that twisted in his chest when he looked at her still bleeding wound. She could have died. With a scowl furrowing his face, he looked away. This was too much, too soon. They couldn't afford to get emotional.

With a sigh, he dragged the mask of the Resistance Leader back on and unclipped himself from the harness. A protest died on her lips before she voiced it and shifted out of his way.

"The Roekaar do not want us to be easy to find," she pointed out. "And a limited oxygen supply isn't enough of a ticking time bomb, you're—"

Evfra grunted. "I'm fine."

She burst out laughing, verging on hysterical. "_I'm_ fine, you're not."

He made a noise of frustration but directed his attention at the disparate pieces before him. Despite Ryder saying she wasn't good with tech, she had made good progress with the pieces she had to work with. She just lacked the proper tools to complete the job.

"Stop that," he rasped as he picked up the frayed ends of the wires to examine them. They looked to be in good enough condition. Bending over was incredibly hard, fighting through the mental fog to work was harder still. But what was hardest was feeling Ryder's eyes on him. Worry and anxiety was roiling off of her.

"I didn't do anything," she pointed out.

"You're staring."

"What else is there for me to do?" temper fraying, voice snapping.

"Check under the console by the seats, there should be an emergency repair kit there. Unless they really wanted us dead," he said, his tone matching hers.

Hisses of pain and grunts of muffled groans came from behind as she searched. "Well Ravad just wanted to get away, if you can believe that."

She handed him the repair kit and he put on the finishing touches that she couldn't. The longer he worked, the worse he felt, but he wasn't about to leave a job half done, not when her survival depended on this. Mouth dry, vision tunnelling, he gritted his teeth and continued working. He must.

"Evfra."

A wave of vertigo swept over him as he fought to concentrate. Ryder was talking about something or other, he couldn't quite understand what she was saying. His pulse was pounding too loudly to hear anything.

"Evfra!"

Her voice was laced with panic, but it cut through his fog. As his vision blurred in and out, the analgesic effects of the medi-gel fading, he moaned and slumped backwards. One strong arm wrapped around him, steadying him and he fell against Ryder's chest. She grunted and slowly easing him onto the floor. Eyes squeezed shut as he fought to breathe.

"Easy, easy," Ryder soothed, gripping his hand tightly.

"Pathfinder," SAM called.

The conversation washed over him as he struggled to cling onto consciousness. Maybe this was it, this was the end. The taste of iron was strong on his tongue. His mouth opened and closed, but he couldn't find the strength to speak. Words he wanted to tell Ryder just one more time, before it all ended. _I love you._ Words he knew she needed to hear so that he could take the guilt away. _It's not your fault._ Words he wanted to say but he had never found the right moment to say them. _Will you bond with me?_

Then, the world turned dark.

* * *

Tears streamed down Ryder's face as she cradled Evfra's still body. He breathed, but his face was pale and grey.

"Pathfinder, the oxygen supply is running low," SAM said, "I'll advise you to stop crying to conserve the air."

She wanted to laugh at SAM's suggestion, she wanted to scream, she wanted to turn back time and never have taken this shore leave. It wasn't supposed to be this way.

"How far away is the Tempest?" she asked, it was reflex by this point.

SAM kept quiet.

"Give it to me straight, SAM. No need to sugar coat things. We're going to die right?"

"Yes."

Ryder dashed the tears away angrily. Even sitting alone in an escape pod with barely enough oxygen for both of them, she still couldn't accept weakness from herself. Despite how shattered and weary she was, she refused to stop fighting. They had made it this far, why not a little more?

With a grunt, she tried to lift Evfra with one arm. A scream ripped through her throat, tearing another hole in her heart as she fell back to the floor. Frustration, pain and exhaustion had wrung her dry. Taking deliberate deep breaths, she calmed herself. She was no good to Evfra if she threw a temper tantrum.

"SAM, I think I need that ace in a hole now."

"But, it would disrupt the tracing signal."

"Now SAM."

"Understood," SAM replied, their answer sullen and worried.

With a grunt, she hefted Evfra onto her back and lifted him onto the seat. After strapping him in, she pressed her fingers against his neck. His pulse throbbed back against her fingers. It was weak but still there. Her jaw tight, she rummaged through the supplies.

There wasn't much, a spare angara rebreather helmet and a canister of oxygen that would fit Evfra's suit. And the last syringe of medi-gel. She had no need for it. Her bleeding was minimal. If she could make Evfra more comfortable and keep him from dying, she'd take it. Without hesitation, she injected the last dose, never mind she just gave him one not that long ago. As she brought the helmet down over his face, she pressed her lips against his blood crusted forehead. Tears cutting streaks down her face. She took a shuddering breath to steady herself and attached the canister to the helmet.

"SAM, can you get control of Evfra's suit?"

"If I have his permission—"

"Override it with my authority, I'm sure he won't mind."

"One moment."

The pain across her chest intensified as SAM worked, signalling the end of the increased pain blocking. Having their processes split between so many tasks was taxing their abilities and her ability to cling onto this side of lucidity. A pained exhale of breath escaped her lips. She cast her eyes on the repair Evfra was working on. The parts were properly reassembled and the beacon had lit up. "Perfectionist," she muttered under her breath before stealing a glance at him.

Evfra was sagging against the restraints, head lolled towards his chest. His breath misting against the helmet. Hissing, she found a position on the floor right next to the array. The air was getting thinner and her lungs were labouring.

"Got it," SAM reported. "I'll deploy the canister once the pod runs out. But that means—"

She chuckled. "No need to put it into words, SAM. It is what it is. And I don't intend to give up just yet. The Tempest might yet reach us in time."

She picked up the communicator and clicked it on. She wasn't going to leave it to chance. There was no telling what's the actual signal range on this beacon. Static filled the tiny capsule. "This is…" her eyes drifted to the escape pod's code stamped into the door that separated them from hard vacuum. "…escape pod code…" And she fumbled through Shelesh with a horrible accent. "Oxygen running low, passengers require immediate medical attention."

She huffed a breath. Maybe a passing ship would pick up on their comms, maybe the Resistance had sent a ship after them, maybe she could persuade SAM to drop their pain management and allow the Tempest to hone in on them all the quicker. She wasn't ready to die, not yet. "I repeat. This is…"

The escape pod was a tiny speck of silver floating in the dark space between Jirayder and Layan. Ryder's voice was the lone sound in the void, repeating a plea over and over until the darkness claimed her too.


	4. Over and Over

Chapter 4 - Over and Over

_Prompt fill for "Comatose" - Skye Ryder and Evfra for rvtstudent_

Pain searing and pulling and all together overwhelming dragged Evfra forcibly to the surface. He woke with a roar, batting away the hands touching him.

"Evfra, Evfra," someone spoke. "You're safe now. You have to let us treat you."

_Treat?_

He blinked rapidly to clear the tears from his eyes. White filled them instead. White ceiling, white tiles, solid white barriers that sealed him off from the outside and white uniforms on everyone around him.

_Rescued?_

Clearly, this wasn't the escape pod. But all thoughts fled when hands shifted him onto a hard bed. High pitched beeps and shrill screeching came from the machines that surrounded him. Pain filled him and he cried out.

"Get his leathers off now!" the doctor barked.

More hands, more lightning jolts running across his body. But through the fog, one thought rose to the top.

"Ryder… Where is she?" he gritted out through clenched teeth.

The doctor looked at him. A flicker of frustration and understanding crossed his eyes. "She's in good hands."

The screeching went on. Evfra realised it wasn't coming from the machines he was hooked up to.

Fear seized him. "I want to see her," he said, giving voice to the dread that filled his chest. "I need to see her."

The doctor sighed, but continued working. Sharp sheers made quick work of his leathers, completely baring him to the air. He shivered. The sounds from outside grew louder.

His fear won out. "Please." The Resistance Leader didn't beg, but Evfra de Tershaav the man would.

The doctor stiffened and nodded. He tapped his ushataliin. The white screen on one side turned transparent. There just inches away lay Ryder. Tears sprung to his eyes as he watched.

Angara hands pushed against her chest, bowing it in over and over. A tube was shoved down her throat as a machine forced air into her lungs, breathing for her. It was her machines that screamed and shouted, crying out that she was dying. Ryder was dying. His jaw tightened as he tried to rise.

"Fight," he cried out. "Fight!"

He didn't feel it when a sharp prick jabbed his arm. The tiny burst of strength ebbed from his body as he slumped back against the bed. Pain and consciousness slipped away, he drifted off staring at Ryder as the doctors tried to drag her back from death.

* * *

The next time Evfra woke wasn't quite so violent. He knew agony was just a twitch away so he held still and concentrated on his extremities. Fingers and toes, they worked and wriggled fine. Wrists and ankles next, then elbows and knees, that's where he stopped. The door opened. He had half expected Ryder to enter and ask how long did he intended to sleep.

It wasn't her. The ache in his chest intensified. It's a pain that no drug could touch short of putting him out like a light.

Andraknor blinked owlishly, surprised. "Evfra," he greeted. "I should get the doctor."

He shook his head and fumbled for the bed's controls. He managed to put himself into a sitting position eventually. "They had their time with me. Report."

Andraknor sighed and straightened with his hands clasped behind his back. "You were rescued—"

"Start earlier. What happened to the others after the cave collapse?"

The Hesskaarl looked at him for a moment. Pity? His lips curled at the thought. As much as he wanted to ask about Ryder, as much as the question rested at the back of his throat, he held it back. He was afraid of the answer and he was still the Resistance Leader, he had responsibilities. Ryder'd understand. She's strong, she's a fighter.

"The team took minor injuries, just scraps and bruises from the collapse. We weren't able to get to you because the entrance was blocked. But the shuttle bay still opened out to the sky."

Evfra made an irritated sound in his throat and Andraknor took the hint.

"We apprehended or eliminated the remaining Roekaar. The caves had been cleared out. And restoration work is continuing. Qivra is working with us to vet everyone working on the restoration. The people who were missing in the initial collapse have been confirmed Roekaar members."

His fist clenched tight by his side. Pain flared across his chest. He forced a breath out through his mouth. "A trap then, it was all a trap."

"Yes," Andraknor confirmed. "But one that you have handled and eliminated."

Evfra sagged back against his bed, weary and exhausted.

"The Tempest were the ones who rescued your pod. I did not know what happened on board, but their doctor kept you alive long enough for you to get proper medical attention here on Aya." A nurse entered and hurried out when he realised his patient was awake. Andraknor turned to go. "Rest, Evfra. We have got things well in hand. Security has been tightened."

As a doctor entered with the nurse, Evfra called out. "Ryder." Her name was heavy on his tongue. It felt precious, something to be hoarded and treasured. "Do you have news?"

He hated how scared he sounded. He hated how his chest tightened just asking it. But he asked because he must. The restlessness in his chest would yield to nothing else.

* * *

Evfra tolerated the doctor's questions for as long as he could before snapping. "I'm fine."

Sodar looked at him. Her almost pink colouration made her blue eyes all the more striking as she levelled her gaze on him. "You are far from fine. You almost died. If the Tempest crew was one second slower in getting you into a stasis pod, you would died. If you didn't have the emergency oxygen cannister, you would have died. The stars and planets had to align just right for you to be here telling me 'I'm fine'."

He stiffened. It was a long time since anyone but Ryder would put him in his place. Sodar listed his injuries in great detail. In the end when she had to stop to take a breath, he cut in. "Is there anything stopping me from leaving my room?"

Sodar eyed him critically before sighing and studying the machines arrayed behind him. A sigh escaped her lips, "You're going to go no matter what I say anyway."

Evfra didn't deign to reply while Andraknor waited patiently for the situation to play itself out.

"Fine, go but take the chair."

Evfra bristled. "My legs work fine. I was shot, I lost some blood but that's all."

A deep frown furrowed Sodar's brow. "You were bleeding into your lungs. You have not recover the capacity to exert yourself. The chair or you don't get to go. Your choice, Resistance Leader de Tershaav."

He clamped his lips tight, pressing them bloodlessly thin. If this was how he could see Ryder, he could endure the indignity of it. He could already hear Ryder's snorting laughter, poking fun at him before asking for a ride on it. A smile tugged at the edges of his lips before he tucked it away.

"Fine, a chair."

Sodar jerked her head at the nurse who came with her. He bustled out to get a hover-chair. "And…" she went on, tugging Evfra's impatient stare at the door back to her. "Prepare yourself. She isn't in good shape."

* * *

Andraknor was relentless. Making sure he was seated well, none of his IVs and tubes are tangled and were all hanging freely. If he didn't have the controls for his hover-chair, he would have gone off without him.

But that was before Evfra caught sight of the room, Ryder's room. It was marked by the number of her crew milling about outside. The look on their faces, and he was getting better at reading the aliens' faces, didn't bode well. They whispered and murmured amongst themselves and as one their voices went silent when they caught sight of him.

The eagerness to see Ryder took a sharp turn, it went bitter with fear and dread. But the chair moved him relentlessly forward, inch by inch by inch. His eyes counted heads. All of them were here even Ryder's second in command, Cora Harper. Everyone but her brother. It was Cora's face he sought. She was human, though different from Ryder, some expressions were similar. The furrow in her brow, the hand that rubbed the back of her neck and the stiff way she held herself.

It screamed of worry, anxiety and uncertainty.

Cora straightened and walked towards him. But the door to Ryder's room hissed open and a man walked out. River Ryder had the same sun gold hair, the same steel green eyes, but his did not hold the same strength of will or more accurately stubbornness. Instead, they were red-rimmed and puffy. Evfra stiffened in his seat, the pain flared in his chest and he gasped.

Andraknor stopped the chair and bent over to check on him. "Don't stop," Evfra forced through his mouth.

As much as he wanted to know, he didn't at the same time. As much as he hoped Ryder was fine, would be fine, had to be fine, the voice at the back of his mind told him to stop lying to himself. Here and now, when the evidence of everything counter to his hopes and wishes was presented to him, he baulked. Ryder would have chuckled and squeezed his hand to assure him.

Taking a sharp inhale, allowing his chest to expand painfully, he growled, "Do not stop." Andraknor sighed and the chair started moving again.

River stood barring Evfra's way into Ryder's room. He rubbed a hand over his face and straightened his hunched shoulders, but he couldn't get rid of the defeat in his eyes. Cora squeezed his shoulder and said, "Good to see you're up, Evfra."

Evfra managed no more than a grunt.

"River, I'll get the others to clear out," Cora said.

River nodded gratefully and soon he was left alone with Evfra and Andraknor. Teeth chewing on his lip, he was working up the words to speak. But Evfra spared him the trouble.

"How bad is it?"

River grimaced and with a broken voice he delivered the worst news possible. "She's brain dead."

* * *

Evfra didn't remember entering Ryder's room. He didn't remember what he said to River after the news. All that filled his head were two words — brain dead.

_What does that mean?_

An angara was either dead or alive, in a coma or awake. River tried to explain but the words were like shards of glass cutting his throat as he spoke. Evfra listened as dread spread like poison through his chest.

Evfra blinked, realising he was holding Ryder's cold limp hand. It was porcupined with needles and tubes, carrying drugs to sustain her. Shifting, he sought her face. It was obscured by more tubes, insidious, sterile and altogether foreign. One snaked down her mouth, strapped to her face, another into her nose, delivering nutrients. Her right arm was placed in a omni-cast, probably re-broken and reset, held together by steel rods stabbing into her skin. Its orange glow made her face splotchy and sick. A thin tube lay between her legs, the contents of the tube yellow as it drained her wastes.

A broken voice erupted from his throat. "Please," he begged, freely this time. Calling upon the ancestors for help, Ryder was human, would she return to the home of her ancestors to be reborn again? Or would she be lost forever among the stars and dust? He shoved his fist into his mouth, teeth biting down on it.

The sound of her heart rate monitor beeped loudly, taunting him with its steadiness. He glared at it, the waveforms formed and reformed in a hypnotic rhythm. He forced himself to his feet. Andraknor wasn't here to tell him no.

Tiny electrodes were plastered across her forehead. His eyes traced them to a monitor hanging over her like a deity waiting to reap her soul. Each line on the monitor was colourful and bright but they remained flat.

Brain dead. Ryder was gone. This was merely an empty shell of a body, the bright spark that's Skye Ryder had forever been extinguished.

A lump formed in his throat, he coughed roughly to clear it. It wouldn't budge. His breathing grew ragged as he tightened his grip on Ryder's hand.

"Ryder," he called, a low moan, pained and sorrowful. "Why? Why am I here and you're not?"

"Do you really want to know?" a voice asked.

Evfra jerked his head up, tears welling up in his eyes as his bio-electricity sparked sharply.

It was River. His voice hoarse, his eyes empty as he looked upon his twin. "Do you really want to know?" he repeated himself, harsher this time as anger flashed across his face. "I was there. I saw." Grief twisted into anger, igniting into a conflagration. "She was blue by the time we cracked the escape pod open. She gave the emergency oxygen canister to _you_. She give herself up for you," he snarled, finger stabbing in Evfra's direction. River averted his eyes as he clamped his jaw tight.

Evfra sagged into his hover-chair. The words were ringing in his ears as his eyes slid over to Ryder. Dark rings circled her closed eyes, her chest rose and fell mechanically. He gasped, letting go of her hand when he realised how tightened he had gripped it. The outline of his fingers were printed red on her skin.

"Why?" he rasped. "Why must you always be the hero?"

Ryder remained silent, the beeps of her heart rate monitor was the only sound that filled the room.

River walked noiselessly to the other side of Ryder's bed and took her hand, the one in the omni-cast. His thumb rubbed circles over her knuckles, scrapped raw by the ordeal of the past few days.

_Days… _

It was mere days ago Ryder was in his arms, her arms wrapped around his chest, her voice speaking his name over and over again. Now, everything had shattered around him. Ryder was alive but not. In that instant, he craved contact again, to feel her skin under his. He reached out and held her hand, pressed his forehead onto her knuckles.

The Roekaar had taken his favourite mother from him and now they had taken Ryder, the holder of his heart, too. How much more could they take? As much as he wanted anger to take him, to wrap his heart up in flame forged steel, protecting him against all hurts. But he couldn't, Not when he held Ryder's hand, not when she still lived, not when her heart still beat.

"She signed an DNR," River said, his words soft, almost inaudible.

Evfra lifted his head and their eyes met. Mouth dry, he was afraid to ask what that meant. What new human terms was going to make things worse than it already was?

"DNR, Do Not Resuscitate order," River said as if it explained everything. Ryder's steel green eyes stared out from her brother's face, weary as he straightened and sighed. "It means she didn't want to be kept on life support if the worst happened, it means I have to pull the plug because that's what she wants."

"But—." Speech failed him. Evfra's instincts was to fight anything and everything that threatened to take Ryder away from him. But what if it's her own wishes? He couldn't go against her wishes.

"I don't want to. We're on an angara planet. We do not have a treaty between our people to uphold these stupid things we've signed 600 light years away. I don't actually have to do this. But—" River's voice broke. His face crumpled like wet paper, brow furrowing, jaw clenched so tight Evfra could hear enamel grinding against enamel. His chest heaved as a sob escaped his lips. "Skye, you are the strong one. I can't do this alone, not without you."

Evfra couldn't stop the tears any more. They spilled over and down his cheeks, bold and unashamed as he clutched Ryder's hand. Two men holding onto her, one on each side, filling the air with splintered cries as the heart rate monitor beeped on and on and on.

* * *

Everyone stood around Ryder's bed. Their faces ran the gamut, stony stoicism from Drack and Cora, chewed on lips and tight mandibles from Peebee and Vetra, arms folded across chest and tight jaws from the rest. They surrounded the bed like sentinels, forming a solid wall around Ryder with just enough space for his chair. But beyond them were angaras, faces he recognised. It was a testament to the impact Ryder had upon them, especially taking angaras' cultural aversion to illness and injuries of others. This was respect of the highest degree.

The Moshae, Andraknor, Paaran Shie, Avela Kjar, members of the Resistance whom she worked with during the missions she ran to forge better ties between the Nexus and the Angara Nations stood shoulder to shoulder in the room. This was the lasting effects of her influence. Ryder would have denied it and deflect if she could now.

Sodar cleared her throat as Lexi took up position near the head of Ryder's bed. All eyes trained on them. Lexi turned to River who was trying his best to hold it together. His face was red from his efforts. "Are you ready?" Lexi asked.

River's jaw tightened, his eyes darted once to Evfra's but jerked away again. He hesitated before nodded tightly.

Sodar and Lexi peeled the electrodes off Ryder's chest. White bandages were stark against her bruised skin. They hid the bullet wound she had taken for him. Evfra took a deep breath and got to his feet. Jaal wrapped a hand around his side, taking some of his weight. The heart rate monitor beeped distressingly before Lexi shut it off.

The doctors waited. River bent over his sister, pressing his lips against her forehead, his hand brushing her hair out of her face. When he straightened, he threw a look over his shoulder right at Evfra. "What are you doing?" he growled. "She had chosen you. Out of all the men and women she ever had met, she picked you. Don't just stand there. I can't do this alone, she doesn't deserve to take this final journey without you."

Evfra stiffened as if slapped. Anger surged, fuelling his unsteady steps towards Ryder. The others parted to allow him closer. Jaal, ever watchful and careful, followed with a hand ready to help. His legs trembled, unused to bearing his weight, but pride made him stand tall. Ryder would have teased him if she could see him now, poking fun at his stubbornness even as she made sure he didn't hurt himself. How his chest ached to hear her voice again, to hear her laugh loud and free.

The stillness of the air made the others shuffled uncomfortably. But the angaras in the room were speaking in a language nobody but Ryder had begin to learn. Evfra could feel it. The low grade vibration in the air, unheard and unseen, but always felt. Grief ran across his skin, sorrow crawled across his shoulders, heartbreak seized his chest and wouldn't let go.

His shaky hand travelled across the small space and rested on hers. Evfra kissed it, savouring the touch, etching it into his memory. "I love you, Skye." Words he had seldom uttered, though she knew how he felt, he should have whispered them to her, shouted them over the roar of the waterfall on Aya and made his declaration to everyone. "I love you so much Skye Ryder."

Cora called out, "SAM, please transfer the Pathfinder mandate to me."

Silence greeted her words. "SAM?" River straightened, frowning at the lack of response from the AI. "Is SAM still unresponsive?"

Lexi nodded. "I've been in contact with Harry, the AI core is powered down there too. It seemed the trauma that Ryder had suffered affected SAM as well. It's not something we can do anything about now. Maybe once we can get to the Hyperion."

Cora nodded tightly. Evfra's breath hissed through his nostrils. What did that even mean? Why would SAM be offline? What happened really while he was unconscious? Did Ryder sit alone in the pod knowing she was signing her own death certificate? Did she know the risks she was taking when she gave up the emergency oxygen tank to him?

It took real effort to drag his mind from the spiralling questions that swirled in his mind. He had to be here for Ryder, these questions could wait.

"In accordance to the DNR order Skye Ryder had signed, we will be terminating life support, her organs will be harvested after her death has been certified by two medical doctors," Lexi announced.

The tube that led to Ryder's nose had been removed, leaving only the thick clear one going into her mouth marring her face. Sodar glanced at Lexi, waiting for a signal from the asari. At her nod, Sodar turned off the ventilator. The hiss-click sound that filled the room rattled to a stop. The slow and steady rise and fall of Ryder's chest came to a stop as the doctors worked to remove the breathing tube from her mouth.

"How long?" River asked, his eyes trained on Ryder's face.

Lexi sighed, clearing the equipment away. "An hour or so."

One by one, starting with the angaras they came forward. Some spoke of the times Ryder had touched their lives in ways big and small, others just stood and whispered words of comfort to the Tempest crew and River. All of them gave Evfra a wide berth. Soon all that was left were the people closest to Ryder. Her crew, the people who had her back from the time she arrived in Andromeda to the time she ended the Archon's reign of terror. And him, the lone angara in the room, the one she laid her life down for.

An hour wasn't suppose to feel like an eternity, but it did. Evfra ran through the gamut of emotions — grief over what was happening, anger at the Roekaar for their actions and most of all guilt. A fervent wish for this to all be over filled his chest — for Ryder's heart to stop beating, for her to be declared real and truly dead, for this agonising wait to be over. As soon as the thought came to his mind, he recoiled. How could he think that? Ryder deserved so much more than he could ever give and here he was wishing she died faster? What kind of person was he? Forehead pressed against Ryder's, his hand pressed against her chest, he could still feel her heart beating. She was still alive, still here.

Then, it happened.

A gasp, so soft he wouldn't have heard it if his face wasn't already over hers. Evfra flinched in shock. All eyes were trained on him.

"What is it?" River asked.

He swallowed, unwilling to give false hope. "Is it normal for Ryder to be this warm?"

Lexi frowned, running her scanner over Ryder's still body. "Her body temp has increased since the last time I've scanned her. This is not possible. A brain dead patient isn't able to maintain their body temperature."

It happened again. A ragged rasp came from Ryder. It's a motion so small, an action so mundane, but it sent shockwaves through the room.

"Did you see that?" Cora asked.

"That's what I heard just now," Evfra confirmed.

"She's breathing on her own!" River cried. "You told me she's brain dead."

"She is," Lexi insisted. "You were there when I did the tests confirming this. I did not want this to be true anymore than you do. This is impossible."

Evfra couldn't help the grin that stretched his lips as Ryder's chest began to rise and fall on its on. It was slow, the duration between one breath and the next agonisingly long but it always came. One after another, and then another and another.

"Ryder, Skye Ryder, has made a career defying the impossible."

* * *

And so here they were, Cora had drawn up a roster. Everyone took a shift sitting with Ryder. She took one look at Evfra and decided that putting him on the roster was meaningless. He was at Ryder's bedside day and night, much to Sodar's disapproval. In the end, even she had given in and set up another bed right next to Ryder's. The tubes returned, one to deliver nutrients, the other to take wastes away. Days passed, one after another. Ryder gave him hope in his darkest moment, but it was waning again. There was no further changes. Ryder breathed on her own, her heart beat, brain waves returned achingly slowly but that was it. She was locked in a time capsule of her own.

Days stretched into weeks. Lexi implemented electrical stimulation to help maintain Ryder's muscle tone as she lay in bed, dead to the world. Evfra healed up, was discharged and escaped Sodar's care. The galaxy went on.

But for Evfra, he was locked in the same time and space Ryder occupied. Neither moving forward or stepping back, remaining steadfast by her side. If pulling on the Resistance Leader mask before was uncomfortable, it was well nigh impossible now. The Resistance closed ranks around him, no longer was he torn between duty and his heart. If this had taught him anything, it was the Resistance didn't need him to run it, there were plenty of capable people to step up in his stead. But he could barely function when his heart lay on death's door.

* * *

In the dead of the night, he told Vetra to go take a break while he sat with Ryder. The heart rate monitor was now a soothing sound, it told to him over and over again that she was alive. Her arm was out of the omni-cast. It had picked up more scars. The bandages long gone, her bruises had faded. All that's left was for her to wake. If she would just open her eyes.

"Resistance Leader."

Evfra stiffened, his grip on Ryder's hand tightened.

"It's me, SAM."

The voice was coming from Ryder's omni-tool implant on her arm. "SAM, I thought you were offline?"

"I was but it was a voluntary power down," SAM explained.

He had questions, so many that they crowded around his mouth, and he was unable to get a single one out. But SAM knew what information was pertinent.

"I went offline because I had to expand all my bandwidth protecting Ryder's brain functions."

"What happened?" the words finally worked itself loose. "What _really_ happened?"

SAM was the only other person in the escape pod with them, the only one who could give him the answers he sought.

"There was a limited oxygen supply on board the capsule."

Evfra nodded warily. The words River spoke were still etched in his mind. "I remember."

"Based on the rate of oxygen used and taking into consideration the limited amount in the cannister itself, it would be impossible for both of you to survive," SAM explained. "So the Pathfinder decided, given that I am able to control her physiology, to put her into a deep coma, akin to hibernation. It slows down her rate of breathing. The idea is to revive her again once the Tempest arrives."

Evfra gasped at the deluge of information SAM was giving him. This was planned. He inhaled, a sharp hiss of air through his flared nostrils. If it was all part of the plan, where did it go wrong?

"But when the pod was pulled on board the Tempest, a combination of the trauma she had already suffered, dehydration coupled with a number of other factors, I wasn't able to revive her. And it tipped her towards true brain death."

Anger flared in his chest even as it clenched tightly. It was a stupid plan with so many factors that could go so wrong, so horribly wrong. And it almost did. They had almost killed her. If they had pulled the plug one day earlier, Ryder wouldn't have the ability to breath on her own and she would have died. "What took you so long to tell me this? Why the silence? We could have killed her!"

"I've shut myself down to prevent as much brain damage as possible when the Tempest got you and Ryder to Aya for treatment. I was only now able to pull away enough to power up again to speak."

The growl he expelled ripped through his throat as he fought to calm himself. He could yell at her once she woke. "When will she wake?"

"I've protected and restored as much of Ryder's brain functions as I'm able. Without proper scanning and cognitive tests, I am not able to determine how much, if any, brain damage she had sustained from the failed revival. But she could wake any time. There isn't any drugs keeping her sedated—."

A groan interrupted SAM. Evfra didn't dare turn to look. He didn't want to find Ryder with her eyes still closed. He didn't want to have his hope dashed so violently, not yet. But the hand he held shifted in his grasp. He watched as her fingers curled as if she was too weak to move. One by one, each of her digits closed around his. Her grip was weak but it was unmistakable, she was trying to squeeze his hand.

A lump lodged in his throat as he turned inch by inch to lay his eyes on her. The nasal cannula curled around her ears and into her nose, delivering additional oxygen to her lungs. Electrodes were still plastered across her forehead. But what's different were her eyes. They fluttered, opening and shutting gently. A furrow developed between her brow as she groaned again, fighting her weakened body.

Evfra waited with bated breath. It was a split second, it was an eternity but Ryder opened her eyes. Steel green ones met his and tears spilled from his eyes. He blinked them away angrily so that he could see, to confirm over and over again that Ryder was awake.

"Evfra…" his name rasped from her lips, the sound so precious, so brittle.

It broke him free to move. He stood and bent over, pulling Ryder into his arms. "Ancestors, you're awake. You're awake…"

In that instant, everything that was wrong in Evfra's world righted itself once more. It didn't matter that the road ahead was long, and recovery would be tough, their tempers would fray. All that he wanted came true and he was whole again because Skye Ryder had woke.


End file.
